Blue Diamond winner Artorius joins Newgate’s colts armory
Newgate Farm has made its third high-stakes stallion play in a matter of weeks, securing Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m)–winning colt Artorius (Flying Artie) to go with duelling Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) favourites Profiteer (Capitalist) and Stay Inside (Extreme Choice).
Newgate’s managing director Henry Field last night confirmed the operation had completed the deal for the Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained juvenile, a high-rating winner of last Saturday’s Diamond, to continue Newgate’s cornering of this season’s colts market.
The trio, all by Newgate’s first crop sires Flying Artie (Artie Schiller), Capitalist (Written Tycoon) and Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) respectively, are being aimed at the Golden Slipper, which would see the winner’s value souring to beyond $30 million.
Many form students put Artorius at the top of the tree as the highest-rated two-year-old to race so far this season after he showed extraordinary closing speed to overrun Ingratiating (Frosted) at Caulfield.
Before that, he displayed his Blue Diamond credentials with an emphatic Sandown victory on January 23 at just his second start.
Field, the first of the stallion players to bid for the colt after he won the Diamond, is in the process of syndicating Artorius between the farm’s core clients.
“Artorius dominated a very strong field of two-year-olds, breaking his maiden by four and a half lengths in a hand canter, and he backed that up with a turn of foot that had to be seen to be believed in the Blue Diamond, beating some very good colts,” Field told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“When you combine the fact he’s got unbelievable scope to go on as a racehorse, with his pedigree, he is a horse we couldn’t leave behind and we pursued him aggressively.“
He added: “The Freedmans are very astute operators and they are very confident the horse is only going to get better as a three-year-old. That is a big part of the appeal.
“He’s a horse who is hard to quantify how far he might get, but he is certainly a very exciting animal.”
Newgate bought into the Mick Price and Mick Kent Jr-trained Profiteer prior to his scintillating Inglis Millennium (RL, 1200m) victory at Randwick earlier this month and then launched at the Michael and Richard Freedman-trained Stay Inside after his Pierro Plate (1100m) victory at Randwick on February 13.
Field and his partners are betting that the two impressive colts can continue their rise through the ranks and, ultimately, win at Group 1 level, but the move for Artorius came after the colt had already claimed a victory at the highest level.
“Five years ago one way or another we ended up getting ownership in the three gun two-year-old colts of the crop and that was Flying Artie, Capitalist and Extreme Choice and all three of those horses are doing a phenomenal job at stud with their first runners.” he said.
“It’s great to be able to buy those three gun colts’ incredibly talented sons.”
Profiteer leads the Slipper betting at $4, Stay Inside is $6 second elect while Artorius is on the third line at $11. A late entry fee will need to be paid for the Melbourne-trained colt to run in the Slipper at Rosehill on March 20.
Artorius, a $120,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale graduate who was sold by Vinery Stud on behalf of breeder Greg Perry, is out of the unraced Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) mare Gracie’s Lass, a half-sister to VRC Darley Sprint Classic (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Delectation (Shamardal). His second dam, Grace And Power (More Than Ready), is a US Listed-winning, Grade 1-placed mare. He was bought by Anthony Freedman Racing with Blue Sky Bloodstock’s Julian Blaxland.
Last year, the market gravitated towards other first season stallions, such as Capitalist, as yearlings by Flying Artie were perceived to be going to require more time to mature before racing as two and three-year-olds, which saw the colt passed in on the Gold Coast.
“He was on our third looks, but he came off our list, and he was subsequently passed in. Anthony said, ‘he wasn’t bad, that horse’ so we went back and looked at him,” Blaxland said last night.
“Buying yearlings is often about buying off good farms and Vinery has got an exceptional record selling top-class horses.
“Artorius was bred by Greg Perry and he said he’d stay in for a bit and that made it easier.”
Renowned horse breaker Greg Bennett was the first to take a shine to Artorius early last year during his education at Fenwick Farm in Queensland.
“Artorius, along with all of Anthony’s other horses, came back to our Newington farm and they then went to Greg’s to be broken in,” he said.
“He gives me a bit of a rundown of the yearlings and he picked out Artorius as having a beautiful action and a great nature. That was probably the first indication that Anthony and I got that the horse was one to keep an eye on.
“Breaker reports are one thing, but Greg did make a point of saying this horse was a particularly nice mover and that sort of thing.”
Blaxland also credited Freedman Sr for imparting some his wisdom on judging yearlings on the Blue Sky Bloodstock principal.
“Artorius was probably just six months away at the sale and Anthony likes to buy horses like that, so I have had to re-educate myself working with him and selecting horses that would suit him,” he said.
“Anthony is quite happy to buy a horse that is not there yet who you can buy better, as opposed to buying the one who looks readymade.
“This is a great example of where that has come off and Artorius looks like a really exciting horse.”
Freedman described Artorius as “an absolute pleasure to train”.
“He is a genuine, tough racehorse, everything you want to see in a future stallion,” Anthony Freedman said.
“His victory in the Blue Diamond was very special and he is a colt that is doing everything as a two-year-old on raw ability. I have no doubt he will only improve as a three-year-old.”