Artorius to stand first season at Newgate Farm for $27,500

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Dual Group 1-winning son of Flying Artie will join the roster after second Royal Ascot campaign

Dual Group 1 winner Artorius (Flying Artie) will stand at Newgate Farm for an introductory fee of $27,500 (inc GST) with the stallion set to take up residence at Henry Field’s Hunter Valley operation when he returns from his second trip to Royal Ascot later this year.  

Famed for his explosive turn of foot, Artorius has so far won three of his 16 starts, spearheaded by his win in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in which he defeated subsequent nine-time Group 1 winner Anamoe (Street Boss), while he notched up his second Group 1 success earlier this year with an equally impressive triumph in the Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m) at Randwick.

The Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained four-year-old, who also finished second on three occasions and third four times, has so far accrued $2,198,349 in career prize-money. He will get one more chance to add to his kitty when he lines up for his swansong in the Platinum Jubilee Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) at Royal Ascot on June 24, a race he dead-heated for third in last year.

“We’re very glad to have him and I think he is what they are after in Australia, because he is an elite-class sprinter who possesses a lot of speed,” Newgate’s director of bloodstock Bruce Slade told ANZ Bloodstock News. “There is no one off race, there is no one-off rating, every race he just turns up, always fights out the finish and if you are the horse in the race leading 300-200 metres out, you know that he is coming for you. 

“He is just a beauty, who I think is extremely well-priced. We approached this thinking about a price that was going to get breeders thinking we had priced him at great value. He is at a price point that every breeder in Australia can access and use and I think off the back of that he is going to prove very popular. 

“When breeders see him they are going to be ecstatic. He is very compact and sharp, you can see why he got up and ran at two because he is that short-coupled, square shape, but has a good action to go with it, a lot of quality and also is that wicked dark colour as well. From a commercial point of view he is easy to mate, from a value point as well and on type people are really going to find him easy to use. He is extremely genuine, he never shirked a task.”

After finishing second at Geelong on debut, Artorius shed his maiden status when landing a 1300-metre handicap by four and half lengths, a performance he followed up with a three-quarter length win in the Blue Diamond Stakes. His final appearance as a two-year-old was in the Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in which he ran sixth, a little over five lengths adrift of his future barnmate Stay Inside (Extreme Choice).  

Artorius consistently performed well during his three-year-old season, finishing third in both the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and he also ran fourth in the Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m). This solid form earned Artorius a trip to Europe, where he continued to perform with credit.  

He kicked off his time in the northern hemisphere by dead-heating for third in the Platinum Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, before occupying the same position in Newmarket’s July Cup (Gr 1, 6f). He signed off his European trip with a sixth-place finish in the Prix Maurice de Gheest (Gr 1, 1300m) at Deauville. 

After a prolonged break, Artorius returned in the Canterbury Stakes where he produced his customary explosive finish to beat multiple Group 1-winning New Zealand mare Imperatriz (I Am Invincible) by a head. Imperatriz would go on to frank that form when she ran out an impressive winner of the William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m). Artorius was last seen finishing fourth, three-quarters of a length adrift of Anamoe, in the George Ryder Stakes (Gr 1, 1500m), on what is expected to be his final start in Australia.  

Bred by Greg Perry, Artorius was bought by the Freedmans and Julian Blaxland’s Blue Sky Bloodstock from the Vinery Stud draft for $120,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2020 and he is one of two winners out of the unraced Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) mare Gracie’s Lass. 

Gracie’s Lass herself is a daughter of US Listed winner Grace And Power (More Than Ready), who was also placed Grade 1 level, and she is also the dam of Delectation (Shamardal), winner of the 2015 running of the Darley Classic (Gr 1, 1200m). 

Slade said the horse’s brillant race record, coupled with his top-class pedigree, will make the stallion appealing to domestic and international breeders. 

“He’s just been an awesome horse to race. All the shareholders are behind him and breeders with substantial broodmare bands are going to get behind him too. So he is going to get every chance and that is the key to the whole thing,” he said. 

“Throughout his career he has raced in all the best Group 1s and he has taken on the best and performed right up to the best all the way through. He has been a great horse to us and a great horse to all his owners and we look forward to that next chapter now. 

“Greg Perry is an incredible breeder. He is the kind of breeder that when he breeds one he breeds a seriously good one. It is an international pedigree and is also a proper Australian proven pedigree as well up front. I love it when you have those Champion Broodmare Sires in there as well. We all love Redoute’s Choice and More Than Ready and physically you see a lot of both of those stallions in this horse.”

Slade said the fee for the stallion will remain unchanged for his first season at stud regardless of the result at Royal Ascot and Newgate are also not ruling out the option to reverse shuttle the stallion, if the right partners come to the table. 

“He will go over for the second year running and all the owners will head over there again. They all had such a good time last time and they will go back over there,” Slade said. “We know exactly what to expect, he will run an absolute bottler again. But it’s pretty cool for breeders that you go in and you pay the $25,000 now and we’re not going to change the fee on them and we’re not going to play around with it. 

“It [reverse shuttling] is certainly an option. It is one of those ones you have to consider who brings the offer to the table. It is not an easy game to reverse shuttle, but if you have a stud that wants to get behind him and send mares, it’s certainly an option, particularly because he has such a great temperament.”

Artorius will stand his first season at Newgate alongside fellow newbies, State Of Rest (Starspangledbanner) and In The Congo (Snitzel), who will command fees of $44,000 (inc GST) and $33,000 (inc GST) respectively. Slade said the new duo have been received well by breeders and will likely cover a full book of mares later this year. 

“State Of Rest and In The Congo are both going really well and will both be booked out,” he said. “Again, they both have lovely price points for Group 1 horses and we have been really pleased.”

Fees for the rest of the Newgate Farm stallions will be released in the coming days.