It would be safe to say that the name of Captain Al runs like a golden thread through the training career of Vaughan Marshall.
Gavin Lerena is flanked by trainer Vaughan Marshall and his partner Jenny Jones after One Stripe’s cracking win (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
It was he who expertly guided the son of Al Mufti to a career best in the 2000 Gr1 Cape Guineas and nursed the colt back to health after he contracted a lung disease during the subsequent Durban season.
Sadly, Captain Al had lost a third of his lung capacity, which forced Marshall to restrict him to sprint races. That Captain Al won both the Gr2 Merchants and Gr2 Diadem Stakes at four is testament to his trainer’s skills.
Having closed out his career with a fifth place in the Gr1 Cape Flying Championship “a distance too short”, the trainer admitted, Captain Al duly returned to birthplace Klawervlei Stud for a stud career, where he ruled supreme.
One Stripe and Gavin Lerena bolt home up the outside rail (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Needless to say, Marshall has been an avid fan of his former protégé and has brought out the best in many of the stallion’s immediate offspring, training no less than seven of the stallion’s Gr1 winners, amongst which the Gr1 Met winners Hill Fifty Four and One World, as well as champion filly All Is Secret and her Gr1 winning own sister The Secret Is Out, to our knowledge, the only siblings to have won the Gr1 Allan Robertson Championship.
Marshall had also trained their dam Secret Of Victoria, who was runner-up in the 2005 Allan Robertson. Off the track for nine months with a fractured sesamoid, she returned to win the Olympic Duel Stakes as a late three-year-old and at four won both the Gr2 Southern Cross and Gr2 Sceptre Stakes.
As regards the Cape Guineas, Captain Al has had an extraordinary impact on the classic and is the only modern era winner whose progeny have emulated their sire, both of which were trained by Marshall.
Jeff Lloyd drives Captain Al to victory in the 2000 Cape Argus Guineas (Pic – Supplied)
Sixteen years after his sire’s Guineas win, William Longsword overcame a deep draw to defeat Gold Standard and after winning the R3,3-million CTS Mile, joined the Klawervlei stallion roster as a replacement for his illustrious sire, who was humanely euthanized after post laminitis surgery complications in July 2017.
That year’s Guineas was a poignant, yet auspicious occasion, as Captain Al sired the winner Tap O’Noth as well as third-placed Like A Panther. A year later, One World chased home Soqrat and Twist Of Fate.
Incidentally, Captain Al was denied another Cape Guineas winner when Captain America was pipped on the line by his unfancied stable companion Elusive Gold, in a desperate finish to the 2013 race.
Tap O’Noth (MJ Byleveld) – won the 2017 Cape Guineas (Pic – Hamish Niven Photography)
On Saturday, Marshall broke a seven-year drought with budding superstar One Stripe, who became his trainer’s sixth Guineas winner. In a sense, it was a fairytale third-generation success, given that One Stripe is a grandson of Captain Al. The colt hails from the initial crop of champion One World, who has made a flying start to his stud career and looks to be a natural successor to his illustrious sire.
Marshall’s admiration for the progeny of One World knows no bounds, “I currently have 28 of them,” he quips. Besides, he paid R1.4-million for One Stripe, the top price at last year’s Cape Racing Sales Ready To Run Sale.
Asked if One Stripe reminded him of his grandsire, he made an interesting observation: “No, he is very like his father One World, who is a more refined horse. He has phenomenal ability and is as genuine as Captain Al was.”
Bernard Fayd’herbe gets Elusive Gold up to shade stablemate Captain America in the 2013 Cape Guineas (Pic – Hamish Niven Photography)
While One Stripe is the first grandson of Captain Al to claim the Guineas, another grandson came close in 2020, the Marshall-trained Linebacker, who went down by a long head to Russian Rock. Despite being by Captain Al’s champion sprint son Captain Of All, he went on to complete the Gr1 Cape Derby/ Daily News 2000 double and finished second in the Gr1 Vodacom Durban July!
On the distaff side too, Captain Al has stamped his authority on the classic as the broodmare sire of last year’s winner Snow Pilot and repeated in that sphere with this year’s runner-up Eight On Eighteen. Interesting to note that both were sired by the much-missed Lancaster Bomber.
For now, Marshall can savour his latest Guineas success.
Future plans for One Stripe are fluid, but the trainer indicated that he will be entered for the L’Ormarins Gr1 King’s Plate, although a run will be dependent on the draw.
Another likely target is the R5-million Big Cap in March.
Entries for the L’Ormarins King’s Plate are due on Monday 23 December.
