Capote (horse)

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Capote


caption =
sire = Seattle Slew
grandsire = Bold Reasoning
dam = Too Bald
damsire = Bald Eagle
sex = Stallion
foaled = 1984
country = United States flagicon|USA
colour = Dark Bay
breeder = North Ridge Farm
owner = Barry A. Beal, Lloyd R. French, Jr. & Eugene V. Klein
trainer = D. Wayne Lukas
record = 10: 3-0-1
earnings = $714,470
race = Norfolk Stakes (1986)

Breeders' Cup wins:
Breeders' Cup Juvenile (1986)
awards= U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt (1986)
honours =
updated= September 5, 2007

Capote (1984-2007) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred by Franklin Groves' North Ridge Farm near Lexington, Kentucky, Capote was out of the mare Too Bald, a daughter of the 1960 American Champion Older Male Horse, Bald Eagle. He was sired by the 1977 U.S. Triple Crown champion, Seattle Slew. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas acquired Capote for $800,000 at the 1985 Keeneland July yearling sale for the partnership of Barry A. Beal, Lloyd R. French, Jr. and the prominent horseman, Eugene V. Klein.

At age two in 1986, Capote made four starts, winning three times. He won the Grade I Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita Park then on the same track, he went up against an exceptionally strong field in the most important race for his age group, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Capote's opponents in the Juvenile included Gulch, winner of that year's Grade I Belmont Futurity and Hopeful Stakes, and Polish Navy who had won the Grade I Champagne and Cowdin Stakes. As well, the field included the future American Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer, Alysheba, plus the colt Bet Twice who would go on to win the 1987 Belmont Stakes. Ridden by Laffit Pincay, Jr., Capote took the lead early in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and held it throughout to score an impressive 1¼ length win.

Capote's performances in 1986 earned him U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt honors and he went into the 1987 racing season as the winterbook favorite for the 1987 Kentucky Derby. However, the colt's three-year-old campaign was not a success. Out of six starts, Capote finished sixteenth in a seventeen horse field in the Kentucky Derby and for the entire year, his best finish was a third

As a sire

Retired to stud duty, from 1989 through to the end of 1991, Capote stood at the famed Calumet Farm who had purchased a fifty percent interest in the horse. The bankruptcy of Calumet would result in Morven Stud of Charlottesville, Virginia eventually acquiring the fifty percent share as an equal partner with Capote's original owners. His owners then moved him to Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Kentucky.

Before being pensioned in November 2003 as a result of neurological problems, Capote was the sire of 21 graded stakes winners among 62 stakes winners. His progeny included Grade I winners Capote Belle, Matty G., Agincourt, as well as:
* Basim - won the 1992 Anglesey Stakes and was voted Ireland's 2-year-old Champion;
* Boston Harbor - in 1996 he duplicated Capote's success, winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and earning U.S. Champion 2-year-old honors;
* Surfing Home - multiple Grade I winner, 1995 Horse of the Year in South Africa.

Capote died at age twenty-three on August 24, 2007 and is buried at Three Chimneys Farm.

References

* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/capote Capote's pedigree and partial racing stats]
* [http://breeding.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=40422 Capote's obituary at Bloodhorse.com]