Captain Bombastic bounces back in NYSS Times Square

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Team Hanley’s Captain Bombastic wins second stakes in last three starts in Times Square division of New York Stallion Series at Saratoga. NYRA Photo.

By Melissa Bauer-Herzog

Twenty-eight days after finishing fourth in the G1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes, Captain Bombastic made his way back to the winner’s circle with an eye-catching effort in the Times Square division of the New York Stallion Stakes Friday at Saratoga Race Course.

Bumped at the break, the 3-year-old Forty Tales colt quickly got his feet back under him and joined a three-way battle for the lead early in the 6 ½-furlong restricted stakes. Captain Bombastic quickly saw one of his rivals drop back but Dream Bigger wasn’t going to let him have the win that easy. The pair clocked a first quarter in :21.80 as they opened up multiple lengths on the rest of the field to run the half in :44.10.

Captain Bombastic held a slight edge entering the stretch while Dream Bigger yielded. Given just a few reminders in the stretch by Luis Saez, Captain Bombastic continued pulling away to win as the race favorite by 5 1/4 lengths over Dream Bigger, who was 2 1/4 lengths ahead of Chowda.

“I was very concerned (about the pace battle),” trainer Jeremiah Englehart said. “In the paddock, Luis sounded like he wanted to be aggressive and it really wasn’t my plan. Luis was aggressive and it ended up being the winning move because he took the race to (Dream Bigger) and he knew what kind of horse he had under him. It worked out well.”

While Saez had planned on letting his mount sit behind horses, it all changed when Captain Bombastic’s stablemate Ariesberg was squeezed at the start in the rough break. With the race working out differently than Saez expected, he decided to gun for the lead.

“It was a battle,” he said. “I knew I had horse and I was thinking to sit second or third behind the speed but when I saw Ariesberg didn’t break that well and I was there, I took it. When I came to the three-eighths, Jose (Ortiz) started putting pressure on me but my horse was responding. When we came to the stretch, he went to the lead and took off. He was much the best.”

Trained by Englehart for Team Hanley, Captain Bombastic has won four of his eight starts and only finished off the board once in a career that includes three stakes victories.

Purchased last year by Bradley Thoroughbreds from Sequel Bloodstock for $80,000, the colt was bred by Chester and Mary Broman out of their homebred New York-bred Stolen Star.

Captain Bombastic is a half-brother to the Bromans’ multiple graded stakes winning New York-bred Highway Star and three other winners with his dam producing five winners from six foals.

Stolen Star was purchased in utero by the Bromans when they bought her dam from the Keeneland November breeding stock sale in 2002 for $115,000. Stolen Star is also a half-sister to their homebred stallion Friend or Foe in addition to stakes winning Star Gazing and the dam of stakes winner Surge Of Pride.

From a family full of stakes horses, Captain Bombastic’s fourth dam is dual-Grade 1 winner and successful broodmare Taisez Vous.

Stolen Star visited Malibu Moon in 2018 for a New York-bred yearling filly and foaled a New York-bred Good Magic colt in March.

Endnotes:
  1. [Image]: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/CaptainBombasticNYTB.jpg

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/08/28/captain-bombastic-bounces-back-in-nyss-times-square/