Sebastian K

Sebastian K – 16 HH – 1.49
Sebastian K is one of the fastest and greatest trotters of all time . He was the first horse to break 1.50 and the first horse to break 1.51 in four consecutive races . Sebastian K’s mile record stood for 4 years , please note that he set the mark on a 1000m track . He is still the world record holder for a mile on a 1000m track.
Sebastian K was a champion horse in Europe winning numerous Group 1 races . His champion qualities we on display when he campaigned in North America in 2014 . Sebastian K dominated the Open Class features and was named the 2014 Dan Patch horse of the year.

Sebastian K’s introduction to the world’s trotting stallion ranks along with his outstanding race performance and freakish attributes are best summed up by the Press Release issued by Hanover Shoe Farms announcing that he will be standing his first North American season in 2016 at the world’s premier Standardbred breeding farm.
This press release is re-quoted as follows.

World’s fastest trotter to stand at Hanover Shoe Farms.
Wednesday August 12, 2015.

“Hanover, PA – Brothers Tristan Sjoberg and Michael Knutsson of Knutsson Trotting Inc. are proud to announce that they have reached an agreement with Jim Simpson, the president of Hanover Shoe Farms, to stand the world’s fastest trotter, Sebastian K, at the world’s most renowned Standardbred breeding farm beginning with the 2016 breeding season.

“Anybody who ever saw Sebastian K at his best had to be impressed with his breathtaking speed, his incredible gait and the charisma that shone from every hair on his coat,” said Simpson. “He brings to Hanover a perfect outcross and possesses the magic elixir of the combination of great French and American blood that has dominated the best of world trotting for the last several decades. Moreover, he is a great individual, who I feel confident will produce beautiful yearlings and very fast racehorses.”

Tristan Sjoberg added, “Michael and I are delighted to be given the opportunity to stand Sebastian K at the most prestigious stud farm in the world. We are convinced that Sebastian’s flawless technique and excellent confirmation will translate to his offspring.”

Sebastian K was a beacon of trotting in North America from his very first start in 2014. He won eight of his nine races on his way to a near unanimous choice as the older male trotter of 2014. The apex of his astounding season took place at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on June 28, when he shattered the world record in taking an incredible mark of 1:49f in defeating a host of North America’s best trotters.

Sebastian K comes to Hanover with lifetime earnings of $2,973,252, more than $2 million of it earned in Europe where he took on and often defeated the best free for all trotters in the world, including victories in the Oslo Grand Prix, UET Trotting Masters and Aby Stora Pris ( twice ).

Appropriately, he will be officially retired in a special ceremony at the scene of his greatest triumph at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Aug. 22. The Open Trot will be named in his honor – The Sebastian K Invitational.”

Update: Sebastian K has in excess of 130 mares booked in his first season at Hanover Shoe Farms in 2016.
Likely Breeding Crosses with Sebastian K – some thoughts.

Whilst I will list some possibilities on this subject I would first of all like to share the thoughts of another pedigree consultancy who has already undertaken the exercise on Sebastian K. As they say, two heads are better than one and the more perspectives the better for breeder’s.
Marloes Harkema of Sophia Pedigrees has tendered some very interesting thoughts on this stallion and his likely most successful bloodline crosses. These can be found on their website at www.sophiapedigrees.com/news.
For those breeder’s who do not have computer/internet access some of their key thoughts in summary are;

⦁ has an outcrossed pedigree therefore compatible with a wide range of bloodlines

⦁ is more likely to “click” with North American bloodlines than European

– likely to produce very successful outcomes with mares possessing elements of
inbreeding in their pedigrees

⦁ broodmares with faster generation levels than his own which are viewed as
relatively slow

The latter two above are viewed as offering trends more prevalent in the North American broodmare genepool than the European genepool hence supporting their second finding as above.
Before embarking on my thoughts a memorable quote that sticks in the mind from Harkema is;
“To get the best out of Sebastian K this knowledge of inbreeding should be used to his advantage.”
It would appear from my observations that Harkema interprets inbreeding as up to and including Factor 6 ( e.g. 2×4, 4×2, 3×3 etc ) whereas others including myself commonly refer to the outer edge of inbreeding in the Standardbred world to be Factor 5 ( e.g. 1×4, 4×1, 2×3, 3×2 ) with a 3×3 duplication being the first level of linebreeding. A 2×2 duplication or Factor 4 ( as is 1×3 or 3×1 ) is also categorised as representing inbreeding.

The following represent some of my thoughts and wherever possible I will relate them more specifically to the New Zealand broodmare genepool which incorporates more North American bloodlines than it does European at this point in time.

Introducing new outcrossed blood ( blood the stallion does not already possess ) enhances hybrid vigour and produces a product that can compete equally as effectively as a horse rich in linebreeding. Sebastian K should be very receptive to the blood of Speedy Somolli, Valley Victory, Noble Victory and Garland Lobell, all of whom are totally absent from his pedigree fabric.

Linebreeding techniques can be used extremely effectively to produce an equally as good racetrack product. This is big in the Thoroughbred world although in the case of Sebastian K this really becomes limited to just the three influential forebears in Super Bowl, Star’s Pride and Speedy Crown. We will briefly look at each of these forebears.
Super Bowl – Sebastian K is linebred on a 4×3 reverse-sex cross to Super Bowl hence Super Bowl is at the very heart of his engine room. Feeding this same blood back to him from a mare can be very effective. Mares with a male only or female only line of Super Bowl are the most likely benefactors here as the sex-balance is then being equally contributed by both proposed parents.
Star’s Pride – Sebastian K carries three male only lines of Star’s Pride ( Super Bowl twice and Florestan ) . He needs mares with a female of Star’s Pride to allow this forebear’s likely traits to be maximised in your foal.
Speedy Crown – Sebastian K possesses just a single female line of Speedy Crown ( A C’s Wonder ) so is well set-up to benefit from mares offering him a male line of Speedy Crown.
The importance of sex-balancing ( from my days working for Thoroughbred studs ) is that it appears to maximise the chances of the forebear being duplicated to throw his attributes or traits into the resultant foal. No guarantees here but it does appear to help in many instances.

I will not elaborate on inbreeding as the comments above as made by Sophia Pedigrees are quite clear in their optimism for the likely success of inbred mares when mated to Sebastian K. They have the statistics to back up their observations and using Revenue as a sample stallion they quote Market Share’s dam as being 2×3 inbred to Valley Victory whilst Hot Shot Blue Chip, Whiskey Tax, Unefoisdansmavie, Keystone Thomas, Truculent and Bastille all have a dam that is 3×3 inbred to Speedy Crown.

I touched above on Speedy Crown with reference to his daughter A C’s Wonder’s presence in Sebastian K.
Herein I believe lies a wonderful opportunity for New Zealand breeder’s to produce some of Sebastian K’s very best racetrack performers.
Often it is said in a stallion’s pedigree to never underestimate the influence of that stallion’s damsire.
Sebastian K’s damsire is the relatively unheard of Probe, a son of Super Bowl. Probe’s claim to fame was that he managed to deadheat for first with Park Avenue Joe in the 1989 Hambletonian Classic but it in bloodlines that he could prove even more lethal.
Probe’s dam is A C’s Wonder, by Speedy Crown out of A C’s Nancy.
A C’s Nancy should be more familiar to New Zealand breeder’s as being the grandam of a former sire that really made a mark in advancing the trotting breed here, most notably introducing new levels of speed.
I refer here to Gee Whiz II so any trotting breeders possessing mares with Gee Whiz II in their pedigrees should be making Sebastian K a very serious mating option for these mares as the rare opportunity is offered to linebreed to A C’s Nancy. This is proven high speed blood and offers the opportunity to double-up on it. Could it be that Probe provides the very essence of Sebastian K’s high speed and that it is coming through his maternal line via A C’s Nancy? The speed qualities injected in the trotting breed in New Zealand via Gee Whiz II provide a likely indicator to this being the case.
Daughters of Gee Whiz II or grand-daughters of this forebear will also see foals bred carrying Rasmussen Factors to A C’s Nancy and our previous experience has told us that Rasmussen Factors to influential females is a source in itself to high speed.

Another potential opportunity to breed effectively to Sebastian K lies with mares that possess lines of the stallion’s own direct maternal family, this being Family U6 Mamie.
Any mares descending directly from this maternal family will allow opportunities to breed back into the herd ( BBITH ). This form of breeding whilst technically a form of linebreeding is notable for producing hybrid vigour as was the preferred form of breeding for former Australian pedigree guru Mr Gordon Campbell as he considered it resembled what most closely occurred in the wild where only the toughest and fastest survived, conditions akin to a racetrack.
Mares with U6 Mamie lines other than in a direct maternal position in a pedigree should also be considered as serious mating options with Sebastian K as they allow the return of this same blood from your mare to the stallion’s direct maternal line of descent. This breeding practice has been long recognized particularly with thoroughbred breeders as an effective means of creating speed enhancement in the resultant progeny so can be confidently followed.
As some examples of U6 Mamie direct family forebears we can identify the likes of Explosive Matter, Define The World, Sugar Cane Hanover and Fresh Yankee but by far the most relevant one for New Zealand breeder’s is Valley Victory which brings into immediate consideration all mares’ by sons of Valley Victory, the likes of Muscles Yankee etc.
As an aside it is worth mentioning that the U6 Mamie also brought us the legendary pacers Albatross and Nihilator.

It is possible to go on forever exploring other linkages to Sebastian K from the New Zealand broodmare genepool but I will stop now with one final one.
Sebastian K’s third dam Willa Eden is by Regal Pick. Regal Pick’s dam Alta Hanover is a daughter of Tisma Hanover and therefore a grand-daughter of Justissima.
This is familiar blood to New Zealand breeders which appears in numerous pedigrees and excellent blood to duplicate. Tisma Hanover also left Titan Hanover ( a half-brother to Alta Hanover ) who can be found behind Hickory Smoke in the likes of Chiola Hanover. Tisma Hanover is also a half-sister to Nibble Hanover who can be found in the likes of A C’s Nancy. Oh, the intricacies of Standardbred pedigrees, they just go on and on, the challenge being to unlock them to produce that superior racetrack product.

Sebastian K has made the transition from champion racehorse to champion stallion.

From his first crop in America Sebastian K produced the 3yo Breeders Crown winner in Next Level Stuff , she also set a record in the process.

From his first Australian crop Sebastian K has also produced On Advice who broke the Australian Record for a 3yo trotter , trotting the mile in a sensational 1.54.5 .

On Advice was a quality 2yo winning the Foundation series in his juvenile season , he also backed up as a 3yo to win the Foundation series .

Sebastian K’s oldest progeny in Australia and North America are 3yos in 2021