‘He’s probably only going to get better and better’
Field predicting more success for talented stallion Capitalist
With uncanny timing, Capitalist (Written Tycoon) had his second Group 1 winner just as soon as his service fee sharply went down, when three-year-old Reserve Bank (Capitalist) trumped his older rivals in last Saturday’s The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) at Morphettville.
But the only way is up for the rising 12-year-old, says Henry Field of Newgate Farm.
Field said Newgate moved to position Capitalist (Written Tycoon) as the “no-brainer” best-value sire in the country when it dropped his service fee for 2025 from $77,000 (all fees inc GST) to $44,000, after it had been at its peak of $99,000 as recently as 2022, his sixth standing season.
The move also provided a touch of balance to the farm’s shop window, after Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) went from $275,000 to $330,000 – a then equal national record before being surpassed last week when Coolmore’s Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) rose to $385,000.
Field said Newgate wanted to “give breeders a free kick” in reducing Capitalist’s fee, and the result is set to be a robust full book when his list of mares is finalised this week. Capitalist covered 156 mares last term, the fewest of his eight stud seasons, and down from a high of 243 at $99,000 in 2021.
But aside from merely presenting value, Field is confident Capitalist can continue to build momentum, morphing his reputation for consistency and reliability to that of an unqualified stud star.
“He’s probably only going to get better and better,” Field told ANZ Bloodstock News. “I think we’ll see him become a regular Group 1-winning sire, I really do.
“I think there’s a real key to breeding to him. And he’s a horse that so many savvy breeders have bred aggressively to. They’ve worked it out as well as we have.
“A lot of smart breeders have used him and are using him this year, and I think they’ve really got it down pat, with the types of mares who work really well with him.”
Newgate have had to wait a full four years for Capitalist’s second top-tier success, after the 2021 ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) victory of his first-crop colt Captivant (Capitalist) – now standing at Kia Ora Stud as one of his father’s two sire sons in Australia, along with West Australian farm Mogumber Park’s Marine One.
But the 2016 Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner has still been achieving in spades.
Capitalist ranked ninth on Australia’s general sires’ table last season, and sits eighth this term – a highly meritorious rank in only his fifth campaign with runners. He ranks fifth by winners, with 138, sixth by wins (209), and equal tenth by stakes winners, with six.
The powerful chestnut is ninth among two-year-old sires – but equal third by winners with nine, including one stakes victor in Peter Snowden’s filly Memo (Capitalist).
While he has a robust winners-to-runner ratio of 63 per cent, Capitalist has a more modest stakes winners to runners figure of 4.35 per cent, but Field anticipates that will rise.
“He’s had a lot of good horses running in Group 1s, and I think he’ll produce plenty more in his career, both here and in Hong Kong,” he said.
“One thing that’s very interesting with Capitalist is people are starting to work out what sort of mare to breed to him, and that really excites me. He’s got his best crops coming through.
“Mares like the Fastnet Rock (Danehill) mares are incredible with him – scopey mares with good temperaments. Reserve Bank and Memo – one of the best two-year-olds in the country this season – are out of Fastnet Rock mares.
“We’re particularly seeing the Danehill line mares that have size and scope and great temperaments and good length in them – they’re creating a lot of really good horses by Capitalist.
“He’s a very young stallion to have been a top ten sire in Australia twice already in his career. The only stallion in the last five years to have more stakes-performed two-year-olds is Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice).
“And the most exciting part is we’ve really got it down pat what sort of mares to put to him.”
Capitalist has had four top-tier placegetters, including last month in Hong Kong with Sunlight Power’s third in the Champions Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) – a result Field called a vital step in fortifying Capitalist’s future.
“He’s developing as the new really important Hong Kong sire, especially with a recent Group 1 performer,” Field said.
“Sunlight Power is an important horse for us because Capitalist is becoming the news in Hong Kong as well, so he has a lot of strings to his bow.”
Field said the Hong Kong drift could also partly explain the current gender imbalance in Capitalist’s runners. He has 16 male stakes winners to eight female, while his respective winners-to-runners ratios are 69 and 57 per cent.
But, Field sees possible parallels in this area with another headline-grabbing stallion of recent weeks.
The 15-year-old Dundeel (High Chaparral) welcomed another female stakes winner on Saturday when Litzdeel won Morphettville’s South Australia Fillies Classic (Gr 3, 2500m). The Arrowfield stallion now has 12 female black type victors to 25 male.
That’s still an imbalance, almost identical to Capitalist’s, but Dundeel now has ten Australian stakes winners this season, and seven have been female.
“I really feel like Capitalist is a stallion where, over time, he’ll prove to be a very good sire of both sexes,” Field said.
“I don’t feel there’s any sort of sex bias there. He’s a relatively young stallion who’s had some good fillies. Memo is one of the most exciting two-year-old fillies in the country.
“In the fullness of time, it’ll balance out. He’s from a great fillies’ family himself. He’s thrown plenty of fillies that have a lot of speed and a lot of talent.
“He’s had a lot of black type-performed fillies and mares, so it’s only a matter of time before he breaks his maiden with a Group 1–winning filly or mare.”
Despite Capitalist’s wait for a second Group 1 winner coming only a couple of weeks after his substantial fee reduction, Field said there was no regret about the decision.
“It was by design that we set him at $40,000 (plus GST),” he said. “We really wanted to establish him as the bull’s eye value, proven sire of the country – and that’s exactly what he is.
“We wanted to make him a horse that would almost force commercial breeders to use him at the price.
“Additionally, to make him a horse on our roster where it’s an absolute no-brainer for commercial breeders to use to put themselves in a profitable position.
“All of our big clients use him, and now he’s basically a free kick for breeders at $40,000, and I feel it’s important to have a horse like that on your roster.
“I can see his fee building over the next few years, and that’s a good thing. But it was important for us to price him to show that a lot of breeders can make a profit from him, and to make him the easiest horse in the country to make a profit from.”