First winner for Two Step Salsa strikes at Churchill

Conquest Two Step, from the first crop of Group 2 winner Two Step Salsa and a $420,000 purchase earlier this year, became the first winner for his sire as he scored a two-length victory in his career debut Friday at Churchill Downs.

The dark bay or brown colt dueled for the lead through a speedy opening quarter in :21.67 and was kept to task late by Shaun Bridgmohan once clear in the stretch en route to the victory He covered 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:03.63 for trainer Mark Casse. The colt becomes the first winner for Two Step Salsa, who stands at Manuel Andrade’s Get Away Farm in Lowell, Fla.

Bred by Andrade, Conquest Two Step was a successful pinhook for Barry and Shari Eisaman’s Eisaman Equine, who bought the colt as a yearling from his breeder for $20,000 at the 2012 Keeneland September sale and then sold him to Conquest Stables for $420,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. spring sale of 2-year-olds in training. He is out of the stakes-placed winning Pioneering mare Homesteader and is from the family of stakes winners McKilts, P V Lightening, King and Crusader, and Senorita Chi Chi.

An 8-year-old son of Petionville, Two Step Salsa is out of the unraced Seattle Slew mare Two To Race and is a full brother to multiple stakes winner Kingofthebluegrass. He has 50 2-year-olds in his first crop.

Two Step Salsa won half of his dozen career starts and earned $1,104,040. He won the Grade 3 Lazaro Barrera Memorial and Affirmed Handicap in the U.S., and took the Group 2 Godolphin Mile in Dubai, defeating Gayego. He placed in three other stakes, including a third in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.