Sepulveda sure to interest

Press, 28 July 1989, Page 22

Sepulveda sure to interest

If there is one stallion which must attract the interest of breeding pundits when his first crop step on to the track this season, it is Ikamatua Stud’s Sepluveda. Sepulveda is of special interest, not because he has already left winners in the United States (two from two to race), but because of his breeding and his own racetrack ability. - At the time of his arrival here, Sepulveda was the fastest two year old to come into the country rating a tick over 1.08 for the 1200 m at that age in California. Sepulveda won two of three starts at two and five of seventeen in all for earnings of $164,200. He won nearly half that as a two year old in 1981, taking the Hollywood Prevue Stakes, a $75,000 race. He was group placed at both three and four years. Sepulveda also has an interesting pedigree, one of speed but with a solid backup on the maternal side through sires like Prince John, which has been a stout influence in American pedigrees for years now as his sire Princequillo was before him. Sepulveda was bred in Florida where his sire,

First Landing, and his maternal grandsire, Dr Fager also stood. First Landing was a brilliant son of another brilliant two year old, Turn To, one of the most influential stallions of modern times, Sir Tristram being among his descendants. Turn To won three of five starts at two and all his three starts at three, but he broke down in preparation for the Kentucky Derby following a brilliant win in the Flamingo Stakes. He resembled his maternal grandsire. Admiral Drake, more than his own sire, Royal Charger, and some of his best sons including Hail To Reason and First Landing took after him in that respect. ■ Hail To Reason, the maternal grandsire of Noble Bijou and likely to have been a major factor in that horse’s success at stud, was the American two year old champion of 1960. First Landing, Sepulveda’s sire, was the leading two year old in America in 1956 and the leading sire of two year olds there in 1971. In one of his few defeats as a juvenile he ran second in the Belmont Futurity to Intentionally, which is the

sire of Sepulveda’s second dam, First Postage.

First landing is regarded as the soundest racehorse left by Turn To, running through to the end of his four year old career and winning nearly $BOO,OOO. His son, Riva Ridge, was also the leading two year old of his year and went on to win the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont, and each time led from start to finish. First Landing has also made an impact as a broodmare sire. His daughter, First Feather, was dam of Run the Gantlet, a champion racehorse and now a champion sire. Sepulveda’s maternal connections also represent speed largely through Intentionally and his maternal grandsire. Dr Fager, which held the world mile record for fifteen years. Dr Fager was a great champion in the United States and a very popular horse with the public. Like some of the best Australian horses of recent times his prime asset was speed but he had the class to hold on for a minor placing in the Kentucky Derby and few could beat him over a mile at his peak.