Capital Rachel is a daughter of Al Italia, one of the most consistent broodmares at the stud and the dam of four horses who have jumped on the circuit in Capital Callisto (1.20m), Capital Vegas (1.30m), Capital Cuba (1.35m) and Don di Stisce PDL. Being a direct daughter of a mare who has produced four jumpers puts Rachel at the centre of a prepotent family. The results continue behind her: her granddam, Fronika, is the dam of Adalfride (1.40m). Armitage as damsire and Landfrieden beneath supply the older German substance the family is built on.

Capital Rachel’s sire is the late Rendement, described as the most decorated stallion ever to stand on South African soil. By Burggraaf out of a Zeus mare, Rendement competed at 1.60m in Europe and represented South Africa at the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Kentucky with Johan Lotter, finishing his final round clear over a course where the water spanned 4.40m and the triple bar stood 1.80m at the back rail. Lotter called him ‘brave as a lion’, a horse who would try to clear whatever he was presented with from whatever approach he was given, with a temperament that was simply kind and willing. As a sire, Rendement is known for scope with unrivalled carefulness, for breeding size and rideability, and for passing on the neat hind leg and the elasticity through the body that let him always make a plan.

Capital Rachel is in foal to Capital’s Barnardini JT Z, a Zangersheide stallion by Baloubet du Rouet, the Athens Olympic individual gold medallist. Barnardini’s dam, Happy Days Z, is a full sister to the Olympic horse Hardrock JT Z and has produced four black-type performers, and his damline runs back through Carthago and Ramiro Z. Nicole Horwood calls him a ‘quality young stallion with all the attributes of the modern international sporthorse:

blood, power, balance, and an exceptional brain’. Baloubet’s brilliance over a Rendement daughter from a repeatedly productive family is a mating designed to lift a consistent line towards international level.