Pedigree Insights: Conquest Two Step

What to write about? The obvious choices include Callback, who led home a one-two for Street Sense in the GI Las Virgenes S., and Pulpit's son Lord Nelson, who used his 5lb concession to narrowly get the better of Texas Red in the GII San Vicente S. 

The case for Street Sense is strengthened by his having also been represented by the likes of Sweet Reason and Ocho Ocho Ocho since his return from Japan. And, although Callback's dam Quickest once sold for no more than $40,000, that was before her half-brother Super Saver won the GI Kentucky Derby. Indeed Callback has a truly impressive female line, her fifth dam being none other than the champion filly Numbered Account 

Moving on to Lord Nelson, he too has some impressive connections. He's inbred 3×3 to Mr Prospector and his dam African Jade is a daughter of Seeking The Gold and the Grade I winner Miss Linda. 

But these impressive 3-year-olds are by stallions which at one time commanded fees as high as $75,000 (Street Sense) and $80,000 (Pulpit). In sharp contrast, last week's GII Palos Verdes S. winner, the Two Step Salsa colt Conquest Two Step, certainly wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Neither Two Step Salsa nor his sire Petionville was a Grade I winner, which explains why Two Step Salsa is based in Florida, not Kentucky. Petionville, for his part, now stands at a fee of $5,000 in Maryland, having earlier left Kentucky for Pennsylvania. 

This may not sound like the basis for a promising stallion career, but the bare facts of Two Step Salsa's record are that, from 84 named foals in his first two crops, he has sired Dance With Fate, successful in last year's GI Blue Grass S. after a couple of Grade I seconds as a 2-year-old, and now Conquest Two Step. Dance With Fate's dam Flirting With Fate won just one of her seven starts and has changed hands for as little as $28,000, while Conquest Two Step's dam Homesteader made no more than $40,000, in foal to Scat Daddy, on her last visit to the sales ring, in 2008. 

Two Step Salsa is clearly doing something very right, but he is still available this year for only $7,500 at Get Away Farm. It is going to be fascinating to chart his career over the next few years. He has only 34 2-year-olds this year and his yearling crop numbers 39, but his promising start, highlighted by Dance With Fate's efforts, earned him a book of 109 mares in 2014, so he could be one to watch in 2017 and 2018. 

Clearly, Two Step Salsa's bright start was unexpected by most people, but perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised. While it's not possible to describe any son of Petionville as fashionably bred, Two Step Salsa's pedigree contains some notable elements. For a start, he is inbred 4x5x4 to Buckpasser, who retired with the brilliant career figures of 31-25-4-1, having been champion of his generation at two and three, as well as Horse of the Year. Although Buckpasser was arguably most effective in the role of broodmare sire (three championships), he sired 11% stakes winners in building a very impressive Average Earnings Index of 4.04. 

Two Step Salsa's dam Two To Waltz was the result of an $80,000 mating in 1995, which gives a good illustration of the quality of her bloodlines. By Seattle Slew, she had daughters of Storm Bird, Buckpasser, Turn-to and Princequillo as her first four dams. That Princequillo mare, Sail Navy, had the distinction of being a half-sister to Make Sail (Kentucky Oaks and Alabama S.) and Never Bow (Widener H. and Brooklyn H.). 

Two Step Salsa didn't race at two, but he did so well in winning half of his eight starts as a 3-year-old that he came to the attention of Godolphin. His versatility was no doubt part of his appeal to the Dubai operation. His four victories, which included Grade III wins over seven furlongs and 1 1/16 miles, had all been gained on all-weather tracks in California, and he had also run respectably on turf. After ending his season with a creditable third in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (misleadingly contested on all-weather), Two Step Salsa headed for Dubai. He justified his purchase by winning his two starts on Nad Al Sheba's dirt track, being particularly impressive in wiring his field in the G2 Godolphin Mile. 
Although he wasn't able to reproduce that form when he was returned to the U.S. for two more starts, Timeform rated him 121. 

To get back to Conquest Two Step, he is now proving well worth the $420,000 he cost after a ten-second work at the OBS sale in April 2013. His first graded victory came a month after he had given Shared Belief's supporters a real scare in the GI Malibu S. 

The 4-year-old has an interesting broodmare sire in Pioneering. With Mr Prospector as his sire and the flying Terlingua as his dam, Pioneering was bred well enough for anything. Unfortunately, he proved unexceptional, though he did win two of his six starts as a juvenile, before a suspensory injury forced his retirement. His fee was set at only $3,500 when he commenced stallion duties alongside his celebrated half-brother Storm Cat at Overbrook in 1997 and it was no higher than $5,000 in 2009, the year he was sold to Brazil. He had his moments, though, his best effort in the U.S. being Behaving Badly, winner of the GI Santa Monica H. Conquest Two Step is the second graded winner out of one of his daughters. 

Conquest Two Step's dam Homesteader achieved a few stakes placings in earning more than $165,000, but a graded stakes victory is something new for recent generations of his family, which again suggests that Two Step Salsa merits plenty of respect for what he has achieved so far.