‘It’s good to see his stock coming to fruition late in the two-year-old season’
Newgate Farm’s Brutal holds strong hand in Eagle Farm Group 2 as stallion seeks stakes breakthrough
Young sire Brutal (O’Reilly) has a strong chance to convert a promising start at stud into black type success with a possibly three-pronged assault on Saturday’s Queensland Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) at Eagle Farm.
Newgate’s eight-year-old stallion has the Kris Lees-trained Brutal Bowler plus Anthony and Sam Freedman’s Barbaric Lad as confirmed runners, with Nathan Doyle’s second-starter Harlem Queen last night sitting as first emergency on the fringe of the 18-horse field.
Two colts at the top of the field – Godolphin’s Broadsiding (Too Darn Hot) and Team Corstens’ Bittercreek (Snitzel) – hold strong market position despite their wide gates, with the former currently a $3.60 favourite and the latter at $8.50.
Brutal Bowler – the fourth-highest priced Brutal yearling so far after being bought by Lees and Justin Bahen for $240,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale – was the shortest of the Brutal contingent. Bookmakers had him around $7 following his second-start 2.8-length breakthrough success in a Sunshine Coast two-year-old handicap over 1400 metres.
Barbaric Lad, ranking seventh on his sire’s sale ledger at $210,000 from the same Gold Coast sale, was at $31 after scoring one win, at Pakenham, amid three starts.
Harlem Queen, Brutal’s next costliest yearling at $180,000, again at the Gold Coast, was at $26 after a debut third on a Heavy9 at Newcastle’s stand-alone Saturday meeting (transferred from Gosford) on May 11. Those odds tightened on Friday after the forecast of 20mm of rain before the race at Eagle Farm, which was a Soft5 late on Friday.
With Kelly Schweida’s impressive and well-travelled filly El Morzillo (Star Witness) holding second-favouritism at around $5.50, and colts including Yulong’s last-start Group 3 winner Althoff (Written Tycoon, $12) and Angel Capital (Harry Angel, $9) among the top fancies, the Sires’ presents as a wide-open affair befitting it’s $1 million purse.
However the race pans out, Newgate is already cheering the large triple-quilled feather in Brutal’s cap, as it looks ahead to his fifth season at stud on a slightly reduced fee of $16,500 (inc GST).
“Any time a first-season sire has three runners in a Group 2 two-year-old race, it shows they’re getting not only quality stock but enough volume of quality stock – and that’s a great indicator for the future,” Newgate’s managing director Henry Field told ANZ.
“We’re really excited about how Brutal is going, and it’s good to see his stock coming to fruition late in the two-year-old season.
“He had horses go well at the early trials, and he’s had two-year-olds run well all season. But while he’s done a really good job to this point, I can see his stock improving as they get older, like he did himself, and like his sire O’Reilly did.
“Brutal was one of the top class three-year-olds in Australia. He won the Doncaster at three. So I’m sure his stock will keep improving.”
The Team Hawkes-trained Brutal didn’t debut until two weeks before turning three, but demolished a Caulfield 1200-metre two-year-old field by five lengths. He won his next two starts in Melbourne Listed class, and seven months later claimed The Doncaster (Gr 1, 1600m) at only his seventh start, adding the Premiere Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) that spring before being retired after ten runs.
After serving between 122 and 177 mares in his first three seasons, Brutal recorded a year-four dip in 2023 with just 69 matings, at $22,000 (inc GST), but Field expects his numbers to rebound now he has runners on the ground.
He’s had seven winners from 17 runners, chief among them Lead Me On, who took the half-million dollar Magic Millions 2YO Debut (1000m) at the Gold Coast’s marquee day in January, Moonee Valley two-year-old winner Jenni’s Meadow, and Wellington Boot (1100m) victor Fingers Hunter.
“It’s exciting. There’s definitely a very good feel and a buzz around the horse at the moment, and let’s hope he can keep on doing it,” Field said.
“But he’s been absolutely one of the most popular on our roster for this year. He’s priced very competitively, and a lot of smart judges are watching how his two-year-olds are running, and seeing they’ve got plenty of upside.”
Lees said the Newhaven Park-bred Brutal Bowler was in “good order” but would need to improve his record of tardy starts.
He also cautioned that the colt, the fifth foal of the Listed-placed Refer (Fastnet Rock), may be emerging from a Sunshine Coast two-year-old handicap which compares unfavourably to the formlines of several rivals, such at ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Broadsiding, and Bittercreek, who took the Spirit Of Boom Classic (registered as Champagne Classic) (Gr 2, 1200m) at Doomben last start.
At least Brutal Bowler and Tim Clark have barrier three, one inside El Morzillo and Craig Williams, while Broadsiding had 19 and Bittercreek 16 as of Friday night, before final scratchings.
“He’s good. There’s no faults with him,” Lees said of Brutal Bowler, who ran a modest sixth as second-favourite on debut over 1200 metres at Eagle Farm on April 27.
“I’m not sure of the formlines he’s coming out of, but he can do no more than what he showed us in his recent win. So we’ll see where he’s up to.
“Hopefully he can step nicely for Tim and we’ll see if he’s up to this level. He’s stepped away slowly in both his runs, and you can’t give away a start like that at this level.”
Eagle Farm may be slow to heavy if the forecast rain arrives.
While Brutal Bowler’s Sunshine Coast win on May 19 came on a Soft7, Chris Waller’s Althoff took the Ken Russell Classic (Gr 3, 1200m) at the same course on a Heavy10 eight days earlier, a race in which Barbaric Lad made steady ground for a 1.7–length fifth.
Bittercreek and El Morzillo hinted they could handle what Saturday may bring when running the quinella on a Soft7 in the Spirit Of Boom, the filly catching the eye by flashing home late from the rear.
Compared to many of Saturday’s opponents, El Morzillo hails from the bargain basement, being bought by Schweida for $50,000 at Inglis Classic Yearling Sale from her breeders Widden, who will stand her rising 17-year-old sire Star Witness (Starcraft) at their Victorian farm this season for just $8,800 (inc GST), down from $11,000 (inc GST) last year.
Schweida said he hadn’t originally planned for the grey filly to still be campaigning in June when she debuted in early December, but that’s how her early days have transpired.
Her lengthy campaign of six starts so far – at least broken up by a pair of two-week spells in a paddock – has largely been triggered by her own success. She began with a second in Eagle Farm’s Calaway Gal (Listed, 1000m), then scored by a neck over the same trip in a two-year-old handicap at the Sunshine Coast – beating Lead Me On into second.
Schweida was thus emboldened to start her in Randwick’s $2 million Inglis Millennium (1100m), where she ran well despite two bouts of interference to finish 2.5 lengths off the winner in ninth.
An Eagle Farm placing after a mini-break was followed by another trip south for Randwick’s Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), where at $51 she ran a 1.4 length fourth to the smart Eneeza (Exceed And Excel) and Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon) in her second-latest run.
“Glen Betts, the syndicate manager, picked her out on her breeding,” Schweida said of El Morzillo, who’s out of a sister to the Listed-winning Spending To Win (Snitzel).
“And then Brett Gilding, who used to work for me and now works for Inglis, went and checked her out and said he knew she was the type I liked.
“From day one she showed us ability. She ran second in her first start in a Listed race, so we’ve always had an opinion of her.
“She has had a long campaign, and been up and down to Sydney a couple of times, but everything seems good. She’s as tough as nails, her blood’s good. Two-year-olds are a bit run-by-run, so you don’t really know until the day, but all her runs have been good.”
El Morzillo would be Star Witness’s first stakes-winner of the season if she can prevail, adding to his career haul of 24 headed by his sole Group 1 winner Global Glamour.
Schweida believes that can happen, while restraining predictions pending the weather.
“If it stays dry, our inside barrier’s a help and you wouldn’t want to be drawn wide like Broadsiding. But if it’s wet, the outside might be a better place to be,” he said.