Newgate Farm boss Henry Field striving to add North England to his all-star stallion roster with Golden Slipper glory
Henry Field has turned a pipe dream into the biggest stallion operation in Australia as the Newgate Farm supremo seeks a third Golden Slipper success.
The Newgate Farm stallion barn door that was once engraved with Militarize’s name might soon have a replacement – North England.
This could be a reality if North England can live up to the hype and wins the $5m Golden Slipper later this month.
Henry Field, the man who created the “Stallion Factory’’ at Newgate Farm, shares in the ownership of North England who resumes in the Group 2 $300,000 Todman Stakes (1200m) at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
The brilliant Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained North England, owned by a high profile syndicate that includes Newgate and China Horse Club, is looming as Field’s best chance of winning a third Golden Slipper.
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Waterhouse, who has trained a record eight Golden Slipper winners, has already declared North England as the horse to beat in the world’s richest two-year-old race.
“Remember when Pierro won the Breeders’ Plate and I said this colt will win the Golden Slipper?” Waterhouse said recently.
“Well, Pierro did win the (2012) Golden Slipper and I’m saying the same about North England.’’
Field’s previous Golden Slipper winners, Stay Inside (2021) and Capitalist (2016) are now part of Newgate’s all-star stallion roster which seems North England’s destiny if he can win the rich Rosehill race on March 22.
Militarize didn’t win a Golden Slipper but he was a dual Group 1 winner as a two-year-old, then returned at three to win the stallion-making Group 1 Golden Rose before being retired to Newgate last spring.
But fertility issues meant the abrupt end of Militarize’s stud career.
He was gelded, returned to training and resumes in Saturday’s Group 1 $750,000 Canterbury Stakes (1300m).
“North England is our big chance for the Golden Slipper. He’s a top-class colt with a very good pedigree,’’ Field said.
“No doubt whatever he does on Saturday he will improve because he hasn’t raced since the Golden Gift in spring but he is in great shape.
“Given we are in the stallion-making business we don’t get the opportunity to race a top-class gelding like Militarize very often so we are excited about the process.
“You are never sure when a horse comes back from stud whether they are focused or not on their racing but we will know after Saturday. I can tell you that every report on how he is working has been really positive.’’
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Field is the driving force behind Newgate Farm, the biggest stallion operation in the southern hemisphere.
It was 2010 when Field, then an ambitious 27-year-old, drove his used Commodore with more than 300,000km on the clock to the Hunter Valley where he negotiated to lease a property near Aberdeen.
Foxwedge was his founding stallion and got the Newgate brand going before three years later Field was joined by business partners Gavin Murphy and Matthew Sandblom and the business went into turbo drive.
Newgate now stands 16 stallions and they serve more than 2000 broodmares during a spring breeding season.
“I think when we started the farm we didn’t have the ambition of getting to where we are today,’’ Field said.
“But Newgate’s stallions now breed to the most mares of any stud in Australia, we have the best stallion by every metric in Extreme Choice, and the partnership with Gavin and Matthew goes from strength to strength.
“If you had told me 15 years ago we would have the biggest stallion operation in Australia standing the best stallions, I would have said it was a pipe dream as opposed to anything else but we are very proud.’’
North England’s quest for the Golden Slipper – and ultimately to join the Newgate stallion roster – continues in the Todman Stakes.
The brilliant colt’s win in the Golden Gift last spring ensured he was the first to qualify for the $5m Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill on March 22.
It meant trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott could concentrate solely on preparing North England for the world’s richest juvenile race rather than chase prizemoney to earn a Slipper start in a series of lead-up races.
So, Waterhouse and Bott had no reason to panic when North England was withdrawn from his scheduled comeback race in the Silver Slipper last month after the colt was found to have an elevated temperature on race eve.
But North England’s gleaming coat, muscular physique and impressive exhibition gallop between races at Randwick last Saturday proved his readiness for his return to racing in the Todman Stakes.
This will be a defining race from a Golden Slipper perspective with North England going up against some of the best colts in training including Wodeton, Beiwacht, West Of Swindon, Pallaton, King Of Pop, and Blue Diamond placegetters Tentryis and Tycoon Star.
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“North England is fit and healthy,’’ Field said.
“It was a very minor thing he had and one where we could have started the horse in the Silver Slipper and he still would have run well.
“But given he was already qualified for the Golden Slipper, there was no value in running the horse. We didn’t see the point of taking a risk with him.
“He’s 100 per cent now and hopefully he stays that way over the next couple of weeks.’’
Field said the Golden Slipper, the world’s richest two-year-old race, remains the most influential race on the Australian racing and breeding landscape.
If a well-bred colt wins the Golden Slipper, his value soars to around the $50m mark and instantly secures his future as a stallion prospect.
“The Golden Slipper is the best two-year-old race on the planet,’’ Field said.
“If you are lucky enough to have the winner then you know you have the best two-year-old in the world.
“From a breeding industry point of view, this is such an important, breed-shaping race.
“When a colt wins the Golden Slipper, they market themselves because the success of Slipper winners at stud is unprecedented.’’
Field’s two Golden Slipper winners, Capitalist and Stay Inside, share certain traits that he believes are essential for two-year-old success.
“For a colt to win the race, it takes an incredible young horse with phenomenal ability and the right mentality,’’ he said.
“It’s not only ability that they need to have, they need to have the right brain, they need to be sound, and clean-winded. You need to have a very good horse mentally and physically.’’
At stud, Newgate’s two Golden Slipper winners are making their mark. Capitalist is proving an outstanding stallion with a particularly high ratio of two-year-olds stakes winners to runners, while Stay Inside’s much-anticipated first crop hit the racetrack later this year.
“Capitalist is always around the top 10 sires, he’s doing a great job,’’ Field said.
“Stay Inside’s first two-year-olds come out later in the year and we are very bullish about them.
“Both stallions have big numbers of mares each season, they are very popular horses.’’
Capitalist stands at a fee of $66,000 while Stay Inside is at $55,000 which makes them two of the more expensive stallions in Australian breeding.
But their service fee is dwarfed by the phenomenal Extreme Choice, who stands at a fee of $275,000.
“His statistics of Group 1 winners to runners is outperforming every other stallion on the planet,’’ Field said.
Field’s passion for the racing and breeding industry is a birthright.
His great-grandfather, Reg Moses, teamed up with Stanley Wootton and Alf Ellison to purchase English sprinter Star Kingdom to stand at stud in Australia more than 70 years ago.
Star Kingdom became the most influential stallion of all-time, the ultimate “breed-shaper” winning five national sires premierships and seven leading juvenile sires titles.
He was the sire of the freakish Todman, winner of the inaugural Golden Slipper in 1957, his full brother Noholme, Sky High, Skyline, Star Affair, Citius, Biscay, Kingster, Fine And Dandy, Time And Tide, Reveille, Mighty Kingdom, Kaoru Star (sire of Luskin Star) and Sunset Hue (sire of Gunsynd).
Star Kingdom famously sired the first five Golden Slipper winners – Todman (1957), Skyline (1958), Fine And Dandy (1959), Sky High (1960) and Magic Night (1961).
Newgate Farm’s “stallion factory” means Field can stand today’s champion sires and pursue his own Golden Slipper history.
Field found his life’s calling when he invested everything he had, financially and emotionally, to establish Newgate Farm 15 years ago.
“It’s a very challenging business but I love it – this is more like an obsession for me,’’ Field said.
Originally published as Newgate Farm boss Henry Field striving to add North England to his all-star stallion roster with Golden Slipper glory
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