Trilogy Racing welcomed into Newgate-China Horse Club fold
Trilogy Racing is determined to make an impact – and fast – and there’s arguably no better way than doing that than by joining forces with one of the most successful colts partnerships of the past decade.
Not yet 12 months in existence, and already with a rapidly growing bloodstock portfolio under management, the NSW Central Coast couple Jason and Mel Stenning’s Trilogy Racing venture took another giant leap forward at the Gold Coast yesterday by linking with the powerful Newgate Farm-China Horse Club colts club.
And the Henry Field-led group, with its newly acquainted member, wasted little time in making their mark, picking up Lot 1, a first crop son of Justify (Scat Daddy) for $450,000, before adding a further five colts by stallions Zoustar (Northern Meteor), Russian Revolution (Snitzel), Savabeel (Zabeel), Written By (Written Tycoon) and Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) respectively to signal their intent to carry on the momentum achieved on the racecourse over the past year.
Caithness Breeding’s Sean Dingwall, who has been entrusted by the Stennings to lead the Trilogy Racing venture, revealed it was a chance meeting between Field and the Trilogy Racing owners which led to their involvement in the colts partnership.
“We chose to partner up and fill in for WinStar this year in Henry’s syndicate. I thought it was a good entry point for Jason and Mel in terms of getting into a professional operation whereby they’ll get every chance to enjoy it for a long time and also to make it work, not just drain money,” Dingwall told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I have known Henry for 25 years through the industry and he ran into Jason and Mel at an Inglis function not all that long ago and then Henry rang me the next day and said, ‘it might be something that interests you’.
“We had a couple of meetings about it and we decided that we were interested, so then we went further with it. It’s all worked out well.”
Trilogy’s alignment with the colts fund, which last year enjoyed Group 1 success with In The Congo (Snitzel), Wild Ruler (Snitzel), Stay Inside (Extreme Choice), Artorius (Flying Artie) and Captivant (Capitalist), did not alter the Stennings’ vision for their own racing interests.
With Dingwall and agent Chris Blomeley called upon to act for Trilogy Racing at the Gold Coast, they added colts by first season sires Encryption (Lonhro) ($250,000) and Trapeze Artist (Snitzel) ($230,000), a colt by Spirit Of Boom ($170,000) and a Written Tycoon (Iglesia) filly ($200,000).
Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott will train the Written Tycoon filly (Lot 28) while the Encryption colt (Lot 145) and the Spirit Of Boom colt (Lot 87) will head to Kristen Buchanan at Wyong.
Wangaratta-based Ben Brisbourne is set to take charge of the Trapeze Artist colt who was sold by Edinburgh Park.
Trilogy Racing also bought a 50 per cent share in a $260,000 Capitalist (Written Tycoon) filly purchased by trainer Lloyd Kennewell and agent Mathew Becker of Group 1 Bloodstock yesterday.
The stunning level of investment made by the Stennings, who founded personal protection equipment business Industree Group in 2007, is not lost on Dingwall.
“We took Jason to the (2021) Easter sale to get a bit of a feel for it and then in May we came up and bought some weanlings up here (on the Gold Coast) and we wanted to get some horses racing, so he has been quite an advocate of the online platforms (buying tried horses),” Dingwall said.
“We’ve bought a few mares along the way as well and now we’re at the yearling season, so we’ll start at the sales and work through getting a bit of depth. He was also active at the breeze-ups as well.
“Ultimately, it is great for racing if we can protect him and keep him in one piece and interest, then he’ll be in it for a long time.”
Dingwall expects Trilogy Racing to remain active throughout the remainder of the Gold Coast sale but suggested the splurge would not be taking place at every yearling sale.
“We will probably only target two sales (Gold Coast and Inglis Premier) and then they will have enough horses for the time being to try and get them going and work out where we are from there.”
The flurry of activity from the Newgate colts partnership was in contrast to a number of other colts buyers, which largely play at the top end of the market, who elected to keep their powder dry.
That augurs well for the momentum of the sale, with the likes of Shen You Holdings’ Shane McGrath, James Harron, the Rosemont-Victorian Alliance and Coolmore colts partnership yet to strike a blow.
“One thing I thought about (yesterday) was that there were very few pass-ins, so horses are making their money,” Dingwall said.
“We haven’t seen any superstars making $2 million but, at the end of the day, there’s plenty of horses making a lot of money and that’s probably better for the industry, to be honest.”