Group 1 winner Wild Ruler retired to Newgate Farm
Colt will stand at the New South Wales stud alongside another son of Snitzel in Russian Revolution
Group 1 winner Wild Ruler (Snitzel) has been retired and will take up stud duties at Newgate Farm later this year.
The announcement yesterday that Wild Ruler had run his last race may have come as a surprise to some, with the Peter and Paul Snowden trainee holding a raft of valuable nominations in the weeks ahead. However, it was always expected that he would join the Newgate Farm roster later this year. He joins a star-studded roster, one that will only grow in the months ahead with horses like Stay Inside (Extreme Choice), In The Congo (Snitzel), Artorius (Flying Artie), Captivant (Capitalist) and Profiteer (Capitalist) all potential barnmates in 2022.
The decision to retire Wild Ruler comes after the four-year-old finished ninth as topweight in Saturday’s Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m). He ends his racetrack career as the earner of $2,618,125 and the winner of six of his 15 races, with his victories headed by triumphs in the this year’s Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m), last season’s Arrowfield 3YO Sprint (Gr 2, 1200m) and the Roman Consul Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) in 2020.
Newgate Farm principal Henry Field said there were striking parallels between Wild Ruler and Newgate’s latest star, Russian Revolution (Snitzel), who is on track to comfortably land the first season sire title for the 2021-22 season.
“The thing we like most about him is that he is a horse that has an incredibly similar profile to Russian Revolution, who has taken all before him at stud,” Field told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“Wild Ruler was a good two-year-old, winning the Inglis Nursery. Kerrin McEvoy rode him that day and spoke so highly of him. He was injured in that race and missed most of his two-year-old season, but he came back at three and won the Roman Consul, ran third in the Coolmore. Russian Revolution won the Roman Consul and ran fourth in the Coolmore.
“In the autumn he came back and won a very, very strong Arrowfield, beating Isotope, whereas Russian Revolution won The Galaxy. As a four-year-old went on to win a Group 1 – he won the Moir whereas Russian Revolution came back and won an Oakleigh Plate.
“They are both by Snitzel, both very similar physically and they’ve both got great pedigrees and both were as fast a horses as Peter and Paul Snowden have trained. They were both horses who were very, very hard to beat in any piece of work or barrier trial. We only saw that the other day with Wild Ruler when he worked up alongside and beat Nature Strip in a trial.”
Field said he felt the timing is right for Wild Ruler to retire to stud as he will be able to fill the spot that Russian Revolution has held on Newgate’s roster in recent years, especially given that Russian Revolution likely to get a boost in fee thanks to his first season heroics.
“Obviously, Russian Revolution has taken it all before him,” Field said. “His fee is likely to spike upwards given he’s the dominant first-season sire, so his fee will go up and that allows Wild Ruler, a horse with such similar credentials, to go to stud at Newgate this season at a similar fee to what Russian Revolution was last year ($44,000 inc GST). I am sure that people who have done well out of breeding to Russian Revolution over the past few years will back up and support Wild Ruler this year.
“It gives all those people who want to breed to a very fast son of Snitzel the opportunity to do so at a very similar fee to what they have been able to get with Russian Revolution the past few years.”
It is not only their race records that are eerily similar, the duo’s pedigrees also closely align. Russian Revolution is out of the speedy American mare Ballet d’Amour (Stravinsky), herself a half-sister to prolific stakes winner Taletobetold (Tale Of The Cat), while Wild Ruler’s dam, Gypsy Robin (Daaher), was a two-time Grade 2 victor and Grade 1-placed at seven furlongs.
“He is a horse we bought as a yearling, he raced in the China Horse Club colours for our colts syndicate and Peter Snowden, as he did with Russian Revolution, waxed lyrical about them before they had their first runs,” Field said. “Prior to their first runs as two-year-olds, Peter made it very clear that they had elite speed, the pair of them, and they both ended up retiring to stud with a very similar body of work.
“They’re both that lovely bay colour; they are just fast sons of a champion stallion that have that brilliant speed and profile up so similarly. Both Russian Revolution and Wild Ruler were sound, clean-winded horses with tough constitutions. They raced in good races all the way through.
“In the case of Wild Ruler, he was arguably going a bit bullish, turning into an older bull at this stage, hence the reason for retirement, but he is a retired horse with a great temperament and is very sound and, most importantly, Group 1 ability and a huge amount of natural speed.
“Any horse who can win the guts of $3 million, who raced at the highest level for three seasons, he’s a very high-class sprinter. I think it just gives us and breeders a phenomenal amount of confidence when you consider what Russian Revolution is doing.”
While a fee is yet to be set for Wild Ruler, he already has his first mare booked in with American Grade 1 winner My Conquestadory (Artie Schiller) set to visit him come breeding season later this year.
“The first mare booked into him is My Conquestadory, the mother of Russian Conquest, to breed a three-quarter relation to Russian Conquest and she will be the sort of mares we’ll be sending to him,” Field said. “We thought when Russian Revolution retired to stud that he would be a really important stallion for Newgate for the next ten or 15 years and we feel exactly the same way about Wild Ruler.
“There’s no doubt that the proper sons of Snitzel are going to make their mark at stud, whether it’s Shamus Award, Russian Revolution or Wild Ruler.”