Newgate celebrate stallion success ahead of defining Royal Ascot week
Henry Field and partners target Group 1 victories in the UK with Cox Plate winner State Of Rest and Artorius
At the onset of a week which promises excitement, glamour, prestige and, potentially, lucrative opportunity for Newgate Farm and their partners as they gather en masse across the other side of the globe at Europe’s premier racing carnival, the previous seven days have provided them with much to celebrate as a precursor to Royal Ascot.
Burgeoning sire Deep Field (Northern Meteor) earned another international elite-level winner on Saturday when Al Muthana took out the Gold Challenge (Gr 1, 1600m) in South Africa, while a 12th individual first-crop winner for champion first season sire-elect Russian Revolution (Snitzel) yesterday saw him close in on the title, one that would mark back-to-back champions for Newgate stallions.
It is perhaps a measure of the far-flung echelons the Henry Field-run stud has risen to that, this week, 12 years after its founding, the operation will see its silks feature twice at the royal meeting.
First, on Wednesday, is Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) winner State Of Rest (Starspangledbanner) in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (Gr 1, 1m 2f) – Royal Ascot’s most valuable Group 1 contest – while on Saturday, Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Artorius (Flying Artie) will bid to add an even more valuable feather to his cap when he bids for glory in the Platinum Jubilee Stakes (Gr 1, 6f), a race steeped in historical Australian success.
“It’s a great thrill to be here and a great thrill to be in London. I think half of Australia is here and it’s great to see everyone up here and travelling,” Field told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“We feel honoured to have, along with our key partners China Horse Club, two colts with live chances running in Group 1s at Ascot.
“Every Australian owner dreams of winning a race at Ascot and I think, for us, it’s one of our real bucket list desires.”
Field was in the air, London-bound, when on Saturday the Shadwell homebred Al Muthana became the third top-flight winner for Deep Field, who can now count elite-level winners in his native Australia, Hong Kong and South Africa among his progeny.
Deep Field is emerging as somewhat of a foundation stallion for the stud, having retired to the roster in 2015, he is the longest serving member of their 13-strong line up.
His Group 1 winners include Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) winner and Widden stallion Portland Sky, as well as Sky Field, winner of the Hong Kong Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m), a jurisdiction where, with 14 winners from 31 runners and over HK$51 million (approx. AU$9,212,965) in progeny earnings, he is set to be crowned champion sire for the first time.
“He’s doing a great job, Deep Field. He’s had Group 1 winners in three different countries and he’s always right there in the sires table in Australia, which is quite a task given he’s such a dominant sire in Hong Kong and many of his best colts get shipped out of Australia to be there,” Field said.
“For him to be doing as well as he does in the sires table is testament to the fact he’s a bloody good stallion. He gets horses that go early, they mature and are sound. He gives breeders great bang for their buck.”
Deep Field, who had a first yearling sell for $1 million at this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale while his progeny averaged $217,820 at this year’s yearling sales, has risen from an opening fee of $20,000 to stand for a career-high service fee of $88,000 last season.
“I think he’s settled into a great rhythm. He’s had an Oakleigh Plate winner and has had two commercial stallions go to stud,” Field Said.
“He’s always had a good quality of mares but for a non-Group 1-winning horse that opened at a relatively moderate stud fee, he’s had to do it the hard way. As he’s got better mares over the last few years I think we’ll see him go to an even greater level.
“The one thing about Deep Field that a lot of the trainers comment about him, is that if you go to the sales and buy a good looking Deep Field, you’ve got a very good probability of it being a runner. He has a great conversion rate of nice yearlings which go on to be good runners. That gives people great confidence to buy them as yearlings.
“He’s going to form a very important part of our farm going forward.”
The Mike de Kock-trained Al Muthana, a winner of six of his last eight starts, won Saturday’s Gold Challenge at Greyville by half a length from his more fancied rivals Linebacker (Captain Of All) and the 9-5 favourite Jet Dark (Trippi).
Out of Shadwell’s Edward Manifold Stakes (Gr 2, 1620m) winner El Daana (Redoute’s Choice), Al Muthana is a half-brother to Kewney Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Al Wawail (Lonhro).
The death last year of Shadwell’s founder, Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, has left a significant hole in the bloodstock market of the northern hemisphere, one that has also been felt in the south.
“They’re hard people in the industry to replace. Angus Gold (racing manager for Shadwell) has supported Deep Field from when he was an unproven stallion and he bought Aysar as a yearling who placed in the Caulfield Guineas at a mile. So Angus has been on the Deep Field bandwagon from day one, so it’s good to see them have that Grade 1 success in South Africa,” Field said.
Russian Revolution is set to follow in the footsteps of his barnmate Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) in being crowned champion first season sire this season.
The two-time Group 1 winner recorded a 12th individual first-crop winner yesterday through the Michael Freedman-trained Communist having posted an 11th on Wednesday through the Mark Newnham-trained Spicy Hotpot.
The stallion’s amassed tally of winners and $1,692,720 in progeny earnings has nearly all been accumulated before the corresponding date that Russian Revolution himself made a winning debut on the racetrack, the China Horse Club-owned colt having first won at Canterbury on June 8 of his two-year-old season in 2016, before going on to win his first four career starts.
Russian Revolution has earned two stakes winners this season in Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner Rise Of The Masses and Revolutionary Miss, the latter having missed out on Group 1 success in the Blue Diamond Stakes by just a head, while her Peter and Paul Snowden-trained stablemate finished second by a neck in the $2 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) won by Coolangatta (Written Tycoon).
“I think he’s a unique stallion in that he himself was not an out-and-out two-year-old. He was a very fast horse, but he was a backend of the season, non-stakes-winning two-year-old, that matured at three and got better at four,” Field said.
“What I really like about him is that he’s the leading first season sire by earnings, winners and stakes winners, by every metric he’s the leading first season sire.
“And what you mustn’t forget about Russian Revolution is that he’s had two individual two-year-olds that were beaten in three photo finishes, with those races worth $2 million.”
This week’s Royal Ascot meeting will see Australian contenders return to the prestigious arena for the first time since 2019, when the Toby Edmonds-trained Houtzen (I Am Invincible) came across for the King’s Stand Stakes (Gr 1, 5f) and remained in the UK thereafter, while the Chris Waller-trained pair of Nature Strip (Nicconi) and Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) as well as Newgate Farm’s Artorius will be bidding to become the first Aussie-trained winner at Ascot since Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) all of a decade ago.
In the interim period the Australian bloodstock market has encountered somewhat of a boom with prize-money levels reaching record heights and auction houses reporting record figures.
Field suggested that in the years to come it is the international stage such as Royal Ascot that will provide the litmus test for the new-found prowess of the Australian bloodstock industry which has transpired in light of the lucrative markets that have developed, much in the way that Japanese horses have emerged as a recent force on the global stage.
“I think the genetics of the Australian breed have improved significantly. We’re very fortunate to have shuttle stallions in Australia and while some of them don’t have a massive strike-rate of success in Australia, what they do for the gene pool is really important,” Field said.
“The other side of it is that 20 years ago people would go to Keeneland and Tattersalls and buy the Mickey Mouse stakes winner from America or the slow half-sister from England. Now Australian breeders, with the power of our market in Australia, are coming over to America and Europe and buying the really good stuff.
“They’re buying the mares that can improve our gene pool and we’re taking the very best mares out of their markets and into ours.
“We’ve seen what Japan has done. Japan was probably a decade before us in plucking out the best mares in those two markets and we’ve seen what it’s done for their racing product.”
Wednesday will see Cox Plate winner State Of Rest take on the world’s best, including Japan’s two-time elite-level winner Shahryar (Deep Impact), in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
Field will be joined by the majority of the some 22 members of his Australian-based ownership group at Ascot and the studmaster feels that the Joseph O’Brien-trained four-year-old, who has also won at the elite level in America and most recently in the Prix Ganay (Gr 1, 2100m) in France last month, has a winning chance.
“It’s a very tough race, but Joseph is very confident the horse is going well. It’s the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, there’ll be no hiding, it’ll be one of the races of the week,” Field said.
“There’s a very strong contingent of horses in the race. It’ll take a heavyweight horse to win it and we’re a live chance.”
The Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained Artorius will enter the fray on the final day of the carnival, taking on the Platinum Jubilee Stakes on Saturday.
The colt, who won the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) as a juvenile but has frustrated many in his gallant runs from near last, has placed at Group 1 level twice since, and last time out finished sixth in the Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m), when again finding himself with too much to do from the rear of the field.
Field believes Artorius, rated as a 16-1 chance for the Group 1 sprint, does not hold much of a lesser chance than his Australian compatriot and current 9-2 favourite Home Affairs.
“Artorius is a horse, according to Sam Freedman, that has absolutely thrived since he’s come over,” Field said.
“He has immense ability and I think the trip away is really going to bring him on and season him. The trip is not so much about coming to Ascot, it’s really to mature the horse with a tilt at The Everest and Golden Eagle in the spring in Australia.
“Home Affairs is a sensational sprinter and he’s the horse to beat, but I think people need to remember that they’ve lined up together four times and they’ve beaten each other home twice apiece. So they’re two crack three-year-old sprinters from Australia and I think they’ll handle it very well.
“Winning a Group 1 sprint at Ascot is like winning one of the major sprints in Australia. It holds that level of cache for the Australian breeders.”