Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
The 3-year-old Capitalist colt from Golconda (Snitzel) was part of the Newgate Farm draft at the Magic Millions Gold Coast, being knocked down to Kennewell Racing in partnership with Group 1 Bloodstock for $500,000. At that time, Kheir was not a part of the picture, with Mathew Becker buying him for another client.
“I do the yearling selecting for Lloyd Kennewell and he was bought at the Magic Millions right at the point of COVID hitting and the client the horse was purchased for decided he did not want to proceed with the purchase,’’ Becker told TDN AusNZ on Sunday after Marine One’s Rubiton S. win at Caulfield for Ciaron Maher and Dave Eustace.
Mathew Becker | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
“By the time that came about we had a good understanding that the horse had pretty good ability,’’ Becker said. “I manage a lot of Ozzie’s bloodstock and he was the first point of call to let him know that this horse was there and what had happened and we thought he was pretty good. We had a couple of leading jockeys go down and give him a couple of gallops for Ozzie and he pretty much picked him up straight away for our group there.’’
The horse was bred in a consortium between Newgate, SF Bloodstock and China Horse Club and they both retained a small piece of Marine One.
“He was one of Henry’s (Field) favourite colts in that year and he was quite happy to stay in him and he still is at this point,’’ Becker said.
Marine One as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“They’re very excited. It’s good for their stallion, they still have the mare, so it’s great for them.’’
Proven pairing
Newgate Farm stuck with what has proved to be a recipe for success when putting their star sire Capitalist to their Group 1-placed Snitzel mare Golconda for a second year running.
Twelve months after Becker had secured Marine One on the Gold Coast, James Harron paid close to double his purchase price for the full brother Cannonball, with the third highest-price paid for a Capitalist yearling, $975,000. Two have sold for $1.05 million.
Cannonball as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“We looked at Cannonball, he was bought by James Harron for a lot of money and he was a big, imposing and impressive horse,’’ said Becker. “There were a lot of features that both colts had but we just felt that Marine One was probably a bit sharper. Cannonball was a bigger version of Marine One, still with a lot of quality.
“We actually didn’t bid on Cannonball although we did like him, we just felt that the other horse was just a sharper looking 2-year-old type. As it’s turned out he showed us a lot early but he has taken a bit of time to put it all together.’’
Both colts were evidence that the mare, owned by Newgate, leaves fantastic types, said Becker.
"We actually didn’t bid on Cannonball although we did like him, we just felt that the other horse (Marine One) was just a sharper looking 2-year-old type." - Mathew Becker
“I’m looking forward to seeing the next one out of her,’’ he said. “I don’t think she’s got anything this year at the sales, I think she might have missed, but she’s got a Written Tycoon foal coming off her this year.’’
The G2 Rubiton S. win is Marine One’s fourth from 10 starts and his biggest to date. The Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained Cannonball has had just the two starts to date, in the Maribyrnong Trial S. for fifth and the Golden Gift where he ran fourth.
Gunning for Group 1 win
The next obvious move for Marine One is to find Group 1 success, something that eluded him on his only previous attempt, in the Coolmore Stud S. in October which was the only time the team has been disappointed in him.
“Now he is a Group 2-winning son of Capitalist, and we’re always trying to maximise stallion potential, so the next obvious course is to try to take the next step into a Group 1,’’ said Becker.
“Now he (Marine One) is a Group 2-winning son of Capitalist, and we’re always trying to maximise stallion potential, so the next obvious course is to try to take the next step into a Group 1.’’ - Mathew Becker
“Where that is, we’ll just let the dust settle and he’ll be nominated everywhere. There’s the temptation to run him back here (Caulfield) in a fortnight in the Oakleigh Plate but he’s generally been a horse that races best with his race runs spaced a month between runs… so that race might come up a bit quick for him.
“That obviously leads maybe into a Newmarket H., again a nice race for him down in the weights, but whether or not the straight track’s to his liking, we’re not sure. Or there could be something in Sydney for him.’’
While the team plans the way forward for Marine One, with all the big Group 1 sprints on the drawing board, the horse has headed straight to David Noonan’s beach facility to freshen up.
Marine One and connections after winning the G2 Rubiton S. at Caulfield | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
“I’d imagine it will be tricky for him to get back for the Oakleigh Plate in two weeks,’’ said Becker. “The only time he’s been beaten with Ciaron is when we ran him that quick after his run at The Valley in the Coolmore, and that’s the only time he’s disappointed us. With his runs spaced he’s unbeaten for them so I don’t see why we would change that.’’
Becker is clearly not counting the 0.2l loss to In The Boat (Nostradamus) at the start of this year as a loss. At least not as 'disappointing'.
“He seems to just thrive in work. He’s been in work a long time,’’ Becker said. “He had a good break in the autumn after his 2-year-old campaign this time last year. He just had niggling foot issues that we had to get right which is what brought about the change of trainer and change of environment.’’
“The only time he’s (Marine One) been beaten is when we ran him that quick after his run at The Valley in the Coolmore. With his runs spaced he’s unbeaten for them so I don’t see why we would change that.’’ - Mathew Becker
Marine One was brought into work for his spring campaign and has not gone out of work over the duration of the summer.
“I don’t think he’s at the end of it yet, he’s improving every run,’’ said Becker. “Mentally he’s starting to really switch on now and has tracked really well in his runs and I think he’s still on an upward curve.’’
More Capitalists to come
Group 1 Bloodstock is happy buying Capitalist yearlings and expects many more to take their interest.
“We’ve bought a number of Capitalists and we’re happy to buy more of them, we love them,’’ said Becker. “We find them really good horses to train. They sort of just like to eat, sleep and gallop.’’
But there had been a need to go steady early with them, experience with the sire’s stock suggested to Becker who said: “You can fire them up if you get into them too early.’’
Capitalist | Standing at Newgate Farm
He had been pleased with his work on the sale front so far, and impressed by the strength of the sales this year.
“We’ve bought bits and bobs and have found the market particularly strong on all of those good horses. Magic Millions was an incredible sale to be a part of. We bought a few nice horses there. We bought a really nice Zoustar colt with Lloyd Kennewell for Ozzie Kheir’s group. That was probably a headline horse.’’
That was a $300,000 Zoustar colt from the Edinburgh Park draft out of Fastnet Rock mare Diminish.
Zoustar x Diminish (colt) | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“Then we went to the Inglis Classic Sale and we didn’t buy much there at all. We found that to be a particularly strong Sale. We didn’t have a deep list and those horses we did like seem to be the same that others found and made good money.
“So we’ve still got plenty of shopping to do. We’ll be heading off to Inglis Melbourne Premier and try to get active there and then all roads lead to Easter.’’
