Newgate Farm’s four-strong investment pays off with trio dominating first season title
Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) has defied his small foal crop to be crowned Australia’s champion first season sire, holding off his Newgate Farm barnmates Capitalist (Written Tycoon) and Flying Artie (Artie Schiller), to land the coveted title as the 2020-21 racing season came to a close yesterday.
Courtesy of Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside and three other winners, two of them at stakes level, from just 15 runners, Extreme Choice’s progeny accumulated $3,392,085 in prize-money, $113,357 clear of Capitalist, while Flying Artie was third with $2,063,945 in earnings.
Arrowfield Stud shuttler Shalaa (Invincible Spirit) ($1,964,755), the sire of three-time stakes winner Shaquero, was fourth on the first season table by earnings with Star Turn (Star Witness) in fifth ($1,458,155).
Newgate Farm principal Henry Field labelled the achievements of his leading trio of first season stallions, the sires of the Golden Slipper, ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winners respectively, as “extraordinary” and a testament to the success of the Australian thoroughbred.
“Extreme Choice is the leading first season sire by earnings in Australia and Capitalist is the leading first season sire by earnings in Australasia because he (narrowly missed out on being) champion first season sire in New Zealand, which is quite extraordinary,” Field said.
“Capitalist is also the leading first season sire by winners, so it has been great. It has been sensational.
“Flying Artie has exceeded our expectations, having two high-class Group 1 colts in his first crop (Artorius and Giannis). Winning Rupert has been airborne for the past few months and he looks to have a bright future as well, so we are thrilled.”
Capitalist, the 2016 Golden Slipper winner, had Inglis Millennium (RL, 1200m) winner Profiteer and Captivant scoring before Christmas to immediately stamp himself as a sire of the future and he came out on top by individual winners, siring 20 in Australia.
Vinery Stud’s Star Turn (Star Witness) finished second by that measure with 19, while Winning Rupert (Written Tycoon), the fourth stallion launched by Newgate in 2017, made a late-season run to finish third on the table with 12 winners.
Flying Artie and Darley’s Astern (Medaglia d’Oro) also reached double figures, with ten winners each, as did Kitchwin Hills’ stallion Sooboog (Snitzel).
“What has been equally thrilling for me is the farm has raised 25 individual two-year-old winners this season, we had ten individual stakes horses and we’ve had two individual Group 1 winners out of our two-year-old crop,” Field said.
“So, those things, in line with the fact that we’ve had three stallions dominate the sires’ table, and we’ve had two stallions breaking all-time records for earnings, they are things we are very proud of, but I am probably more interested in trying to work out what’s happening with all these Russian Revolution babies and hoping that he can replicate his barnmates next year.”
While reflecting on the success of the stud’s young sires, Field provided an insight into his vision and desire which has seen Newgate Farm establish itself as one of the premier stallion farms in the country over the past decade.
“It has built organically over the past ten years where we went from one stallion in Foxwedge, to four stallions and to 12 stallions,” he said.
“The aim of the game is not necessarily about being in the right place at the right time, but knowing that when you are, you are capitalising on those opportunities and that’s what we’ve tried to do consistently.
“It has been an unbelievable year having so many young stallions break so many records. It has been extraordinary, but they have got to keep going on with it in their three-year-old season and all indications are that they will.
“One of the great things has been Gavin Murphy (S F Bloodstock), Matthew Sandblom and myself at Newgate have had a vision and we’ve stuck very strongly to our vision the whole time.”
Capitalist ($44,000 to $99,000) and Flying Artie ($16,500 to $33,000) have earned big fee increases on the back of their first crop success while Extreme Choice, whose stud career has been hampered by fertility issues, stands by private arrangement this year.
As the trio’s progeny began to emerge early in the season, Field and his partners again stepped in to quickly snap up shareholdings in their lightly-raced colts including Profiteer (Capitalist), who won the Inglis Millennium, and Slipper winner Stay Inside, who each had one and two starts respectively at the time.
Newgate also bought into the Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained Artorius (Flying Artie) after he won the Blue Diamond Stakes.
The Newgate-China Horse Club colts partnership also races Captivant, a $550,000 yearling purchase, who won his first start in November and clinched his stud future with victory in the ATC Champagne Stakes.
“Obviously we have a stellar group of three-year-old colts in training this year which we are excited about retiring next year,” Field said.
“All in all, we feel pretty content with where we are sitting, but you have got to keep the foot on the gas and you have got to keep trying to get better all the time and improve all the time and that is one thing we always try to do.”
Field, whose 11-strong 2021 roster is made up of Australasian-bred stallions, also pointed to the general Australian sires’ table in what he says is proof of the dominance of colonial sires in the past ten years.
“There have only been seven horses in history break the $2 million mark for earnings (in their first season) and we have three of them in one crop and I think that is quite extraordinary,” he said.
“Interestingly, and this is probably the most telling point, is that we have such wonderful stallions in this country like Snitzel, I Am Invincible and Written Tycoon who are proper, high-class proven stallions and this crop of (first season) horses have dominated those horses on the champion two-year-old sires’ table.
“When you’re comparing apples with apples, this is an elite crop of stallions. For the majority of years the first season stallions fight out the first season sire tables but not on the two-year-old table. This year, this crop of sires has in many ways decimated the general proven stallions which I think is reflective of the fact that it is a stellar group of stallions.”
Extreme Choice and Capitalist led the two-year-old table ahead of Anamoe’s sire Street Boss (Street Cry) and then followed Fastnet Rock (Danehill) and Written Tycoon (Iglesia). Flying Artie was sixth ahead of Snitzel and I Am Invincible.
Extreme Choice, Capitalist and Flying Artie also join Sidestep (Exceed And Excel) and Better Than Ready (More Than Ready) (2018-19), Zoustar (Northern Meteor) (2017-18) and Stratum (Redoute’s Choice) (2009-10) as stallions to have first-crop progeny win more than $2 million in prize-money.
“The top 16 stallions on the general sires’ table are (Australasian) products which suggests that … the local product dominates the sires’ table and I think that is the key to this story,” Field said.
“These three horses (Extreme Choice, Capitalist and Flying Artie) are Australian local product. They profile like many of the top ten stallions in the country. They are high-class racehorses who profile like the stallions that year after year dominate the Australian sires’ table and once again they (colonial stallions) dominated the title this year.
“It is the fast Australian racehorse that goes on to have longevity as a leading Australian stallion.”