Deceased champion sire Captain Al’s success continued unabated at Kenilworth on Saturday.
Not only did his 3yo daughter Captain’s Ransom become her sire’s 24th Gr1 winner when she won the World Sports Betting Cape Fillies Guineas, but his dual Equus Champion Celtic Sea picked up the seventh graded win of her stellar career when she landed the R175 000 WSB Live Games Gr2 Southern Cross Stakes.
Gavin Lerena returns on Celtic Sea (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
For good measure, Captain Al’s Gr2 Sceptre Stakes winning daughter Princess Royal is the dam of Fillies Guineas runner up Princess Calla (Flower Alley), while yet another daughter of Captain Al, Perfect Princess, won the Kenilworth’s first race.
And just for good measure, another Captain Al daughter, Syringa Handicap heroine Secret Obsession, was the dam of Salvator Mundi -winner of the eighth and final race at Kenilworth on Saturday.
It was a second year in a row that a Captain Al filly was winning the Cape Fillies Guineas, and a third time in four years -the sires’ daughters Snowdance and Missisippi Burning having triumped in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
Captain Al’s champion daughter Captain’s Lover was her sire’s first winner of the race, with that subsequent Equus Champion prevailing in the 2007 race, while Captain Al’s sire Al Mufti came up with a Cape Fillies Guineas winner in the form of 1996 winner Arabian Lass.
Another son of Al Mufti, Victory Moon, is the sire of 2011 Cape Fillies Guineas heroine Princess Victoria.
The sire of more than 100 stakes winners, Captain Al has a high-class crop of 3yo’s this season, with Captain’s Ransom joined by the likes of star colts Erik The Red and Malmoos in this category.
Interestingly enough, Captain’s Ransom is closely inbred to Captain Al’s own grandsire, and Epsom Derby winner, Roberto.
Captain’s Ransom draws clear of Princess Calla (Craig Zackey) to win the Cape Fillies Guineas on Saturday (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Not only is the filly by a grandson of Roberto, but her dam Cinnas Ransom was sired by Roberto’s hugely successful son Red Ransom. Inbreeding to Roberto has already enjoyed plenty of success, with notable thoroughbreds sporting such a pattern headed by the Gr1 winners Admiral Kitten (Kitten’s Joy), Almanaar (Dubawi), Big Blue Kitten (Kitten’s Joy), Channel (Nathaniel), and 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Fire At Will (Declaration Of War) – to name but a few.
Promising US sire, and dual Gr1 winner, Brody’s Cause (Giant’s Causeway) is another notable performer inbred to Roberto.
