Capitalist promoted to the top of Newgate Farm’s rising stallion roster
Fellow Group 1-producing sires Deep Field and Flying Artie also earn fee increases
Capitalist (Written Tycoon), Deep Field (Northern Meteor) and Flying Artie (Artie Schiller) have all received significant fee increases on the back of a remarkable autumn in which the Newgate Farm stallions all sired Group 1 winners during the Sydney and Melbourne carnivals.
The trio, standing for $99,000, $88,000 and $33,000 (all fees inc of GST) respectively, head the Newgate Farm roster as the Hunter Valley stud cements its place as one of Australia’s premier stallion operations.
It was announced last week that fellow Newgate first-crop two-year-old stallion Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt), the sire of Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Stay Inside, will cover a restricted book of mares at a private fee.
Newgate had held off announcing its 2021 stallion fees until after Saturday’s ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and the decision paid off with Captivant, a son of Capitalist and raced by the stud principal Henry Field and China Horse Club-led colts partnership, winning the second-last two-year-old Group 1 race of the season.
The sire of nine individual winners so far, a haul which sees him lead the Australian first season sire charts by winners and earnings, 2016 Golden Slipper winner Capitalist had his fee more than doubled from the $44,000 it was in 2020.
“On the measures of number of stakes winners, number of stakes horses, on two-year-old prize-money won, Capitalist is on track to break all the records and he was obviously a record holder himself,” Newgate Farm director of bloodstock Bruce Slade said yesterday.
“He was the highest prize-money earner on record, Capitalist, and he is now going on and breaking all the records with his first crop two-year-olds, which is super exciting.
“He had the favourite for the Breeders’ Plate (Black Opal winner Kalashnikov), the favourite for the Golden Slipper (Inglis Millennium winner Profiteer) and he had his Group 1 winner at Randwick on Saturday.
“He’s getting class horses in really good numbers … and he’s had multiple million-dollar yearling results just as recently as Easter, so I think at $99,000 he represents terrific value and he’s certainly on track to be a sire who could stand for a lot more than that in time.”
Since retiring to stud in 2017, Capitalist has covered more than 200 mares in each of his four seasons and hit a peak of 238 last year, but Slade indicated that figure was likely to be brought back next season.
“We have seen with Deep Field, who has been our most successful and profitable sire for breeders on our roster, he’s always had big numbers and when there’s demand for a horse, whether you have 120 or 150 live foals, it doesn’t seem to matter. When you’re hot, you’re hot,” he said.
“For us, it’s about keeping numbers in line with what they can breed in the season without doing any physical or psychological damage to them long-term and that’s what it’s about with Capitalist.
“Like I said, he’s been a monster in the shed. Put it this way, it’ll be closer to 200 than 250 (mares).”
Flying Artie, arguably the forgotten one at last year’s yearling sales of the big three first crop Newgate sires, would have exceeded expectations of many pundits so far this season, his appeal helped markedly by Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Artorius, a colt now part-owned by Field and his supporters.
But it was not only the Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained Artorius flying the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner’s flag, as Flying Artie was the first freshman stallion off the mark this season when Princess Bojack won at Eagle Farm last October.
As a result, with five individual winners on the board, his fee has doubled to $33,000 this year.
“They probably didn’t look like they were going to be early-comers, so I think that’s probably the exciting thing about Flying Artie,” Slade said.
“He still has so many horses who are yet to run for him. You can see they’ve got lovely scope and athleticism to them and you can see them improving at three and we expect him to have a big winter.
“There will be a fair few nice horses who will show their hand through the winter.”
Slade revealed Newgate resisted the temptation to put up Flying Artie’s fee higher than it did.
“We feel we could have stood him for more based on what he’s done – a Blue Diamond winner in his first crop; Artorius really does look absolutely A-class based on all his time data,” he said.
“We have priced him low and we really want to get him a really good book of mares to cement his future.”
The rising star of the Newgate roster Deep Field (Northern Meteor), who sired his first Group 1 winner when Portland Sky dead-heated in February’s Oakleigh Plate (1100m), has continued his ascension up the ranks, earning a fee increase from $55,000 to $88,000 in 2021, his third fee rise in as many years.
“On the data, his horses improve from two to three and now three to four. People forget, it feels like he’s been around forever, but his oldest crop are only four-year-olds and he’s an active top ten stallion in Australia with just three crops of racing age,” Slade said.
“He’s got such a consistent line of good horses, not only in Australia, but Hong Kong as well. He’s got over 40 horses up there and a lot of those are still to race, so you could imagine how much that’s taken away from what he’s had running in Australia, in terms of trial winners and maiden winners which have been sent straight to Hong Kong.
“He has a lot of artillery still to be shot in Hong Kong, as well as in Australia, with his big numbers coming through.
“The exciting thing about him is the past two years at the $44,000 and $55,000 service fees he’s covered his best mares and in good numbers.”
Slade yesterday also explained Newgate’s decision to heavily restrict the number of mares covered by Extreme Choice – a stallion described last week by Field as “a freak” – due to his low fertility.
From a crop of just 48 live foals, Extreme Choice is the sire of five winners and three stakes performers after covering 110 mares. He covered 105 last year in an experiment Newgate hoped would help get more foals on the ground.
“It was an experiment, to be fair, and needless to say, we’ll be dropping him back to one mare a day this year to really maximise his ability to get them in foal,” he said.
“Last year, we tried in the last couple of months to try him with two a day, but his libido just doesn’t cope with that and, based on the advice and our experience, he’s at his most potent in the shed with one a day.”
Newgate Farm has reduced the fee of Winning Rupert (Written Tycoon), the fourth stallion launched by the stud in 2017, from $16,500 to $11,000 this year, while young barnmate Russian Revolution (Snitzel) remains at a “soft” $44,000 as his first-crop yearlings undergo the breaking-in process.
“We’ll trade Russian Revolution for lower than $44,000 initially to get breeders in there who want to use him but, like Capitalist last year, this guy is coming off massive numbers,” Slade said.
“He’s actually covered the best book of mares by stakes winners and stakes producers than any Newgate stallion in their first season ever, so on that basis, along with the good trainers they’ve gone to, if he pops out with a trial winner early you can expect him to come back to his advertised fee and go from there.
“If you have got any scale to your broodmare band, you could do worse than have him on your books because I think there could be huge upside to him with his two-year-olds up and racing by this time next year.”
Menari (Snitzel), whose first-crop two-year-olds are due to hit the track next season, has also had his fee reduced to $11,000 from $16,500.
Meanwhile, the fee for Newgate Farm’s one new stallion in 2021, the Group 3 winner North Pacific (Brazen Beau), was announced at $22,000 in front of breeders at the recent Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, while the stud will also have Brutal (O’Reilly), Cosmic Force (Deep Field) and Tassort (Brazen Beau) entering their second season at stud.
Newgate will have three stallions leaving this year, with Dissident (Sebring) relocating to Riverdene Stud in southern NSW, Wandjina (Snitzel) expected to move to Victoria and Super One (I Am Invincible) to also stand elsewhere in 2021, leaving it with an 11-strong stallion roster.
‘You couldn’t have scripted it better’
Reflecting on the extraordinary results of the Newgate stallions this season, Slade said: “You couldn’t have scripted it better, really. I think the four (two-year-old) Group 1 races run so far, three of them have been won by our first-crop stallions, which is unbelievable.
“When we first stood the four (in one year), I remember thinking, ‘is this too much of a challenge to give them all their opportunity?’, so it’s just been really satisfying for the whole team.”
Newgate Farm bought into Stay Inside and Artorius earlier this year and it also races Captivant, having bought him as a yearling, leaving studmaster Field effectively in control of the most in-demand stallion prospects available on the open market.
Anamoe (Street Boss), who won the Inglis Sires (registered as ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes) (Gr 1, 1400m), was bred and is owned by Godolphin and he would be highly unlikely to be on-sold for stud duties.
Slade, who has been alongside Field for much of the development of Newgate, said: “As you could imagine, it’s such a huge team effort, from the admin staff up front, the sales team chasing contracts, through to talking to breeders, through to getting the mares covered in the shed and raising a good chunk of young stock on the farms, the whole deal, along with the breeders and the studs who support us as well.
“Then they have got to go to the sales, then into the training systems, the breakers. You think about the amount of hours each day it takes to get these horses to the races, it has been really satisfying.”
Newgate Farm stallion roster
2021 (2020)
Capitalist (Written Tycoon) $99,000 ($44,000)
Deep Field (Northern Meteor) $88,000 ($55,000)
Flying Artie (Artie Schiller) $33,000 ($16,500)
Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) PRIVATE ($22,000)
Russian Revolution (Snitzel) $44,000 (unchanged)
Brutal (O’Reilly) $27,500 (unchanged)
North Pacific (Brazen Beau) $22,000 (new)
Cosmic Force (Northern Meteor) $16,500 (unchanged)
Winning Rupert (Written Tycoon) $11,000 ($16,500)
Menari (Snitzel) $11,000 ($16,500)
Tassort (Brazen Beau) $11,000 (unchanged)
*all fees inclusive of GST