Newgate Young Guns Ready To Fire

There are no certainties in the bloodstock business, but one thing breeders can set their clocks by is that each year, Newgate Farm will be in the hunt for Australia's most desirable stallion prospects.

Given Newgate's constant presence at the very top of the game, whether that be breeding, racing, selling or standing Group 1 horses, it is scarcely believable that the nursery has been in existence for just seven years. The farm has enjoyed success with its foundation stallion, Foxwedge (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), the sire of two Group 1 winners from his first crop and, in addition to two sires currently with their first 2-year-olds, Newgate has no fewer than nine unproven stallions coming up through the ranks.

The next to get their chance on the track will be Deep Field (Aus) (Northern Meteor {Aus}), Dissident (Aus) (Sebring {Aus}) and Wandjina (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}), who have their first yearlings this year. Deep Field is a speedy, Group 2-winning son of Northern Meteor (Aus) (Encosta de Lago {Aus}). Northern Meteor died after siring just four crops but is shaping into an influential sire, his Zoustar (Aus) currently leading the first-season sire ranks. Deep Field is the first foal out of the A$3.2-million mare Listen Here (Aus) (Elusive Quality), the second being the G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Shooting To Win (Aus) (Northern Meteor {Aus}). With four major yearling sales in the book so far, Deep Field has averaged A$141,542.

Dissident, Australian Horse of the Year and a five-time Group 1 winner from seven furlongs to a mile, has averaged A$145,701. Dissident beat Wandjina in his final start, the 2015 G1 All Aged S., but Wandjina had already secured his spot at stud with a win in the G1 Australian Guineas. His yearlings have averaged A$104,783.

It certainly takes some strategising to ensure the careers of so many young horses get off to a fast start, and Newgate Managing Director Henry Field said some key elements include Newgate supporting the stallions themselves as well as syndicating them among the country's top breeders.

“We've worked really hard to build what we think is the most desirable roster of young stallions in Australia,” he said. “A big part of the growth of Newgate has been the mentoring from and the partnerships we have with SF Bloodstock and also Matthew Sandblom.”

“First of all, we only stand stallions that we're willing to support ourselves,” Field said. “We breed 30 or 40 of our own mares to each of our horses for their first two seasons. We only stand horses that we believe the market will really get behind, and we also syndicate the majority of our horses, so many of the leading farms around the Hunter Valley are shareholders. We really got aggressive with syndication five or six years ago and I think that's led other studs such as Coolmore and a lot of the other major farms in the Hunter Valley to follow suit.”

Field said syndication experienced a dip in popularity when global powerhouses Coolmore and Darley became major players in the market-they own most of their stallions outright-but he said he thinks the increase in competition provided by Newgate has seen some of the major farms pick this model back up as a means to attract breeders' best mares.

“We're a big believer that great breeders make great stallions, so we work hard to bring our horses into partnership with really top-class breeders,” he said. “So many of our shareholders support our stallions so well, and now we've seen Coolmore syndicating the likes of Merchant Navy; I certainly think we're a part of the reason they've done that, and a lot of the other major farms in the Hunter Valley too. Syndication is back to being the norm again, and I think it's a great thing for broodmare owners because it gives them the opportunity to be part of the upside in a stallion.”

Newgate has also supported its stallions by buying some of their progeny as yearlings, but Field stressed they would only buy colts fitting the strict criteria they look for in future stallions.

“We buy 10 or 15 colts a year, and that's more for our program of buying yearlings to produce our next stallions, and it's been a very successful operation for us with the likes of Capitalist and Russian Revolution,” he said. “So far this year we've bought yearlings by all three of our first-crop stallions that we deemed good enough to go into our colts' program, and they'll go to Peter and Paul Snowden.”

“The reality is that we support the stallions very heavily with high-class mares and we set them up to get a wonderful opportunity,” he added. “We wouldn't expect or ask breeders to breed to stallions that we wouldn't support ourselves. There are a quite a few commercial stallion farms in Australia that have stood stallions and not supported them at all in the last five, 10, 15 years. We are very strong in our policy that if we're not going to support them heavily, we shouldn't expect breeders to do so. The whole way through the circle from breeding good mares to them, inspecting all their weanlings and yearlings, working as hard as we can to make sure they go into good stables, we work really hard at it. I think a huge part of the success of Newgate is people know that we don't just cover your mare and take your money. We believe in the whole process. I'm pretty sure we covered more mares than any other farm in Australia last year and I believe that's for two reasons: the product–we have many of the most exciting young stallions and stallion prospects in Australia–and secondly because we service our customers and treat them like partners, not just the old take the money and run approach.”

A quick glance at the Newgate roster confirms that Field and his team are fond of the speed horses for which Australia has become renowned. Ten of the 13 horses on the roster did their best running at distances below a mile, and Field said it behooves him to play to the breed's strengths.

“We're big believers in Australian speed,” he said. “There's a reason why over the last 10 years the sire tables have been dominated by Australian stallions. If you look back at the top 10 Australian stallions over the last decade, there's very seldom a shuttle horse in the group. Every now and again there's a Street Cry, or a Danehill or More Than Ready that comes up, but absolutely the vast, vast majority of top-class stallions in Australia are fast, Australian colonial horses. I would recommend that people actually look through the sire tables themselves and see how clear this pattern is.”

The speed-focused nature of Australian breeding and racing is a constant topic of discussion, especially as the country's longer-distance races continue to be dominated by European or New Zealand-sourced horses, but Field said he is not concerned by this trend.

“I'm very proud of the fact that, I believe, Australia breeds the fastest horses in the world, the best sprinters in the world, the best 2-year-olds in the world,” he said. “That's what we really shine at and I'm a big believer in playing to your strengths. We've seen people bring out the mile, 2000-metre [shuttle stallions], and for the most part they've failed one after the next. When you stand the fastest Australian stallions, you're standing the fastest horses probably in the world given the fact that I believe our product, speed horses, are better than anywhere in the world.”

Foxwedge shuttled to Whitsbury Manor Stud in England for four seasons and sired a pair of listed winners as well as the Group 1-placed Urban Fox (GB), and Field said that given the overall record of Australian shuttlers in Europe, he wouldn't be afraid to try another of his stallions there.

“If you look at shuttle stallions over the last 15 years, the Australian horse has definitely been far more successful in Europe than the European horse in Australia,” he said. “The likes of Fastnet Rock, Exceed and Excel and Choisir. That's from a very small sample size, and I believe the reason for that is because you can't teach speed; you can only inherit it. It's such a heritable thing and we're injecting a supreme level of speed into European broodmares, and I think it's fascinating to think that the strike rate of fast, Australian horses succeeding in Europe far outweighs the European horses working in Australia from a shuttle perspective.”

In addition to Darley and Coolmore-owned young sires, unproven horses like Spill The Beans (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}), Divine Prophet (Aus) (Choisir {Aus}) and Scissor Kick (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) are being tried in Europe, but field said he would prefer to take the approach of shuttling a proven sire.

“I see a lot of opportunity and upside in that,” he said. “Certainly we have some really exciting young stallions, for example Dissident, Deep Field and Wandjina all have yearlings we like very much. One of those horses, if they were champion first-season Australian sire, we'd certainly be very open-minded to shuttle one of them to Europe. But we'd rather them prove themselves in Australia first as a rule, and if they do that they can demand a better service fee in Europe and it would allow us the opportunity to buy mares and support them in Europe as well. It would be far more commercially viable.”

It often seems that time flies as quickly as the Australian sprinter, and as such breeders will soon be getting a look at the next batch of Newgate-sired foals at the Australian breeding stock sales. Its first-crop foal sires are Horse of the Year Criterion (NZ) (Sebring {Aus}), who breaks the Newgate mold slightly by being a four-time Group 1 winner over 2000 and 2400 metres; and the super speedy Super One (Aus) (I Am Invincible {Aus}), a Group 3 winner over 5 1/2 furlongs. Super One has one catalogued for the Chairman's Sale – Elite Breeding Prospects and six for the Inglis Australian Broodmare and Weanling Sale. With their first foals due in 2018 is Newgate's largest intake of sires yet: G1 Golden Slipper winner Capitalist (Aus) (Written Tycoon {Aus}), who covered the largest book in Australia last year with 229 mares; G1 Blue Diamond S. winner Extreme Choice (Aus) (Not A Single Doubt {Aus}) (118 covered); G1 Coolmore Stud S. winner Flying Artie (Aus) (Artie Schiller) (185 covered) and the two-time group-winning sprinter Winning Rupert (Aus) (Written Tycoon {Aus}) (147 covered).

Already back at Newgate and preparing to begin his stud career this year after collecting a pair of 5 1/2-furlong Group 1s is Russian Revolution (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}), a A$320,000 yearling purchase by China Horse Club. Field said interest in the 4-year-old has been strong.

“Russian Revolution has settled in really well,” he said. “I can't remember ever having a stallion that's had more mares apply. I suppose given he's by far the fastest son of Snitzel ever to go to stud, and the fact he comes from that wonderful Encosta de Lago/Flying Spur pedigree, I suppose it's not something we should be surprised by.”