Field of dreams

“You’ll raise much better trout in the lakes of Alaska than you will in a goldfish bowl” – Arthur B. Hancock III.

Hancock is a man held in great esteem in the thoroughbred breeding world, which sounds like a far different kettle of fish.

But his point remains, and it’s been one of the guiding principles that have helped Henry Field rise through the ranks of the hopefuls in Australian breeding to emerge as an extremely potent figure himself.

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Field, managing director of the Hunter Valley’s Newgate Farm, has been among the top few grossing vendors at the Magic Millions Yearling Sale for the past three years, ranking second, sixth and then third.

Unusually, he’s also been in the sale’s top five buyers.

And all this only five crops after hitting top gear in his long-craved dream of making racehorses.

Still only 36, Field will straddle the fence at the Magic Millions again in January, with 57 yearlings to be sold, and upwards of a dozen to be bought, as befits Newgate’s business plan.

“I’ve never kicked myself about the one that got away,” he says. “The yearlings we sell and those we buy – it’s two totally separate structures.

“We’ll sell 100 yearlings next year. It’s a core part of our business, so selling the good ones is essential.

“We put them on the market and we’re very transparent about it. We sell the cream of our crop, so the idea is to sell good ones, and we’re proud to do that.”

Many breeders inherit their operation. Some fall in almost by accident. Field is the son of a cattle farmer, and though carrying a dash of equine pedigree – grandfather Tig Moses imported Star Kingdom (Ire) to Australia – he’s taken this particular bull by the horns to uncompromisingly blaze his own trail.

His strengths include hard work, and an ability to listen, learn, and think differently. And he’s studied under the best, taking lessons under Coolmore in Ireland, Ashford Stud in the US, and from a major influence on his life, Gai Waterhouse.

Were you to bet on a group of young sires from which the next big thing might come, you might box up Capitalist, Deep Field, Russian Revolution, Extreme Choice, and one or two others. And if you took a stab at the next human equivalent, you’d do worse than nominate the driven young man in charge of those four, and more.

That line from Hancock has been just one of the theories to shape Field’s approach. And in these relatively early days for Newgate, it has helped rear a handful of Group 1 winners in the past few years, like Coolmore S. winner Exceedance (Exceed And Excel), Shadow Hero (Pierro), Foxplay (Foxwedge) and Awesome Rock (Fastnet Rock).

For all the money, science, guesswork and finger-crossing in the world won’t count for anything without that factor that means the most.

“At the end of the day,” Field says, “the key to the business is one thing - the winning post. If you’re breeding, training, riding, I firmly believe if you focus on the winning post the rest will follow.”

Gallery: Some of Newgate's graduates

The winning post

That quote from Hancock, with whom Field spent some time with recently, is not only part of the reason why Newgate yearlings present in such appealing shape, but why it has so swiftly built a reputation for producing winners.

“What I’ve noticed in America,” says the man who’s there several times a year, “is so many farms have been focused on breeding horses for the sales ring. The ones who were breeding for the racetrack were far more successful.”

Might this explain some of racing’s greatest, and costliest mysteries? Why some of the world’s best-bred horses – and we’re looking at you Snaafi Dancer (USA) (Northern Dancer {Can}) and The Green Monkey (USA) (Forestry {USA}) - had no thirst for competition?

Were they thought so precious they were cotton-woolled to the point that they didn’t know what competition was? And that by the time they were of racing age, it was all too late? It evokes a child psychologist’s line: treat your kids like they’re made of glass, and they’ll think they’re made of glass.

“I’ve no doubt there’s a correlation,” Field says. “When you start treating horses like showhorses, that’s what’s gonna happen.

“Sometimes farms breed horses they think are too valuable to leave out in the hills with the other horses. That’s got to disadvantage the horse. If it can’t gallop and build muscle, bone, cardio vascular capacity at a crucial developmental age, you’ll make it very hard for them.

“Horses want to be horses. They want to live in big paddocks, play with their friends, and grow naturally.”

Newgate raises large groups of yearlings in roomy 50-acre paddocks at its main 1000-acre property, which used to be historic Brooklyn Lodge. Six years ago it was bought by Field and partners Matthew Sandblom and Gavin Murphy, for whom Field is eternally grateful.

“When we prepare yearlings for sales, they’re outside more than inside,” says Field, who doesn’t mind seeing some argy-bargy at the feed trough, in a colt or a filly, for the sake of some extra “mongrel” on the track.

“We can’t make a bad horse good, but I hope this might make a difference in a photo finish. I’ve no doubt that’s been a key reason why we’ve been so fortunate to raise so many good horses.”

Field might not own the copyright on this idea, but other factors have also helped Newgate get places quickly, parts of a whole that began building when he was a boy learning horses from his grandfather.

Tig Moses’ friendship with Tommy Smith led to a vital association with Smith’s now famous daughter from early on. Field gained work experience at Waterhouse’s in high school and joined up full-time on graduating. In 2003, her recommendation helped him, at only 18, into Godolphin’s “Flying Start” program for youngsters with designs on the industry. He remains its youngest draftee to this day.

“Gai was instrumental in teaching me about how a business can run successfully in the horse industry, about horsemanship, getting horses fit; how racing works from the ground up,” says Field, who learnt on his travels that “stallions were probably the most lucrative part of the business”.

With help from Sandblom and Murphy – ultra-successful businessmen in education and finance respectively – Field leased Wakefield Stud. A leg-up came through the chance to syndicate Foxwedge as a stallion. His success helped bring Brooklyn Lodge, and Field went looking for a flagbearing stallion. He learnt a blunt lesson.

“I’ve never tried so hard in my life to buy a stallion as Pierro,” he recalls. “I travelled to Japan, New Zealand, Europe and America to raise capital to buy him. I bid as much as I could possibly bid on a horse - and still got beaten. By Coolmore.

“When you're David against Goliath, you’ve got to think differently.”

So he did, establishing a plan which endures, of buying yearling colts he hopes will become sires. You might say it’s gone alright.

In partnership with breeding bigwig James Harron he bought Capitalist for $160,000. He won the Golden Slipper, now stands at Newgate for $55,000 (inc GST).

With the China Horse Club he bought Russian Revolution for $320,000. He won two Group 1s and is producing “outstanding foals” at Newgate for the same fee.

Field and the China Horse Club also paid $165,000 for Cosmic Force (Deep Field), who’ll likely stand at Newgate. (That partnership also acquired Dissident – now another Newgate sire – before the former Horse of the Year won the last three of his five Group 1s.)

“Buying those yearlings allowed us to buy really high level stallion prospects at a price where we could make it work,” says Field. “Some you get right and some you get wrong, but we’ve got to back our judgement to get the horses we think can make the greatest stallions in Australia.”

And then there’s the 9-year-old with whom the young breeding tyro shares a “surname”. Deep Field was 11th last season among Australian 2-year-old sires, and is currently seventh among Australian 3-year-old sires.

“What I love about him is all the key trainers in the country pretty much have one by him who can gallop,” Field says. “That’s a great sign for any young sire.”

With a strong band of some 120 broodmares, Field is well set to present some of Australia’s most sought-after drafts of yearlings for many years to come.

“There’s some great young people in the industry, and Henry is at the forefront of that,” says Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch. “He’s an incredibly motivated person, with a lot of integrity, and he just presents yearlings that people want to race.”