Sun’s out, guns out for third-season sire Capitalist

Cover image courtesy of Newgate Farm

There are very few stallions in recent history that have hogged the headlines as much as Henry Field’s chestnut horse Capitalist. Only nine years old and into his sixth season at Newgate Farm, Capitalist is a popular horse that has delivered on almost every promise in his young life.

He was that colt that won on debut in the Listed Breeders’ Plate, then won the R. Listed Magic Millions Wyong 2YO Classic and its rich, $2 million big brother three weeks later, the R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic on the Gold Coast.

He later won the G1 Golden Slipper of 2016, leading home Flying Artie, Star Turn, Extreme Choice and Astern.

It was as good a track career as any future stallion could have hoped for. Capitalist was up there with the likes of Pierro, Sebring and Sepoy. He was the Australian Champion 2-Year-Old of his season, and his debut stud fee was $55,000 (inc GST) when he headed to Newgate for the 2017 season.

He bubbled away until his first crop of yearlings made the auction ring, and the hype started all over again.

His very first youngsters appeared at the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. Of the 25 in the catalogue that sold, all bar three went for six figures, and all bar one cleared their sire’s service fee.

They were headed by a chestnut colt from the stakes-winning mare Booklet (Tale Of The Cat {USA}), a horse that made $750,000 when going to James Harron. Kalashnikov, who would later win the G3 Black Opal S., made $600,000 at the same sale.

The following year, in 2021, Capitalist had horses on the racetracks and it was a different story again.

On the Gold Coast in January, his best-selling yearling was a $975,000 colt from Golconda (Snitzel) that eventually became the stakes winner Cannonball. Once again, James Harron was loyal, as were buyers like John Foote, George Moore and Ciaron Maher.

Weeks later, Capitalist, a first-season sire, topped the 2021 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale with a $625,000 colt from the Casino Prince mare Theatric. For kicks and giggles, he had the second highest-selling yearling too, a $600,000 colt from Mystical Tale (Encosta De Lago).

That was the season that Capitalist ran a tight runner-up to Extreme Choice in the Australian First Season Sires’ premiership. Owing to Stay Inside’s victory in the Golden Slipper, Extreme Choice was a comfortable title-holder by earnings, but by winners (albeit with much larger numbers), Capitalist was well-clear.

He topped the table with 20 winners, with only Star Turn close on 19. In other words, the boom that had followed Capitalist as a brilliant 2-year-old also followed him to the stallion barn and, on both counts, all the hype was deserved.

Here comes the sun

In the last week, Capitalist has been returning to the headlines with a spate of winners in the eastern states. To be exact, he’s had 14 winners in the last 12 days.

They started with a raceday double at Gosford on November 8 with Lucky Variety and Captain Bond and he also tasted success at Casterton courtesy of Recap's success. He then continued with My Eloise at Hawkesbury on November 9. On November 11, he had Entrepreneurial win at Seymour and Secret Cash win at Warwick, and on November 12, Gossip Torque was a winner at the Gold Coast while Wategos won at Kembla Grange.

Last Monday, Social Conscience continued the stallion's good run at Bairnsdale, while last Tuesday, Capitalist enjoyed a second raceday double when he unleased Capital Theatre, his sale-topping colt from Theatric, at Newcastle, along with Euros later in the day. His week continued to get better as Malty Malt saluted the judge at Quirindi last Thursday.

Gallery: Some of Capitalist's recent winners

In the middle, he had a roof-raising winner at Sha Tin on November 12 when Superb Capitalist, a $340,000 yearling sold by Element Hill, posted a fetching 5l victory at his first ever outing in Hong Kong. It was Capitalist’s first ever winner in the Asian jurisdiction. He didn't have to wait to notch his second, with Savvy Chic quickly doubling the tally when he landed a race at Happy Valley last Wednesday.

Capitalist's two winners in Hong Kong did not go unnoticed by buyers from the jurisdiction at last week's New Zealand Ready to Run Sale, with a colt by the sire being snapped up for a sale-topping NZ$625,000 and he will now join the stable of Hong Kong-based trainer David Hall.

By winners, Capitalist is sitting well-clear at the top of the Third Season Sires’ table in Australia with 47, with Shalaa (Ire) next closest on 30. In the overall premiership of 3-Year-Old Sires by winners, he’s currently fifth (with 19) behind I Am Invincible, Snitzel, Zoustar and Better Than Ready.

This spate of winners has drawn plenty of attention to Capitalist in the last few weeks after what has probably been a quiet patch since his brilliant stud debut. You’d be forgiven for thinking the horse had suddenly rushed back to prominence when, in fact, it’s been all about the weather.

“There’s no question that his progeny’s best form is on Good ground, as was his,” Henry Field, the studmaster of Newgate Farm, told TDN AusNZ last week. “It’s amazing that we’ve had the first month of good weather in a long time and they’re coming out and winning for fun.”

The east coast of Australia has been battered by floods and high rainfall for the best part of 12 months until recently, with a record three La Niña events back-to-back. In Sydney alone, rainfall has sat at a record 2206mm as of last month, which betters the previous annual rainfall record of the year 1950, which itself bettered the record set in 1860.

It meant that racing in New South Wales, for much of this year, was a constant Heavy-track situation, which suited a few sires and disadvantaged a number of others, including Capitalist.

“We couldn’t predict how his progeny would handle the weather,” Field said. “But what we did know was that Capitalist himself was not effective on wet ground at all.”

In Capitalist’s seven lifetime starts, the only time he was unplaced was when fourth in the G3 San Domenico S. on a Soft 7 at Rosehill. That race was won by Star Turn, and it was Capitalist's penultimate start before his retirement to Newgate in the spring of 2017.

“Certainly, the Snowdens were very firm in their opinion that Capitalist didn’t enjoy any sort of moisture in the ground when he was racing,” Field said. “He’s been a good and dominant young sire to date and he’s thrown progeny much like himself, so it’s logical that they don’t appreciate wet ground either, as he didn’t.”

Training on

Early in Capitalist’s first season, when his winners’ numbers were climbing and stakes winners like Kalashnikov, Captivant and Tycoon Humma were breaking through, there was plenty of discussion about what sort of racehorses Capitalist would continue to throw.

Opinions varied on his siring only ‘speedy squibs’ to his siring quality horses that would train on, and a quick look at the horse’s winners of the last week answer a few of those questions.

Gallery: Some of Capitalist's first-crop stakes winners

Of Capitalist’s 14 winners in the last 12 days, the bulk (eight) were 3-year-olds, and the remaining six horses were 4-year-olds from the stallion’s first crop.

“Captivant, his Group 1 winner, was a horse that trained on from his Champagne S. to be narrowly beaten by Anamoe in a Caulfield Guineas,” Field said. “Economics, a colt owned by TFI, was a Scone-winning 2-year-old that developed into one of the fastest 3-year-olds in the country. So, there’s no question that his stock is precocious and they can train on as well.”

For the Newgate team, they’ve had enough of Capitalist’s foals in training to know how the stock have been going. It meant that during 2022, with its atrocious weather, Field wasn’t too concerned about Capitalist’s figures on the dart board.

“We had a lot of feedback from trainers that said the same thing, so we had complete confidence that once the tracks got better it would turn out results,” Field said. “And that’s what's happening. It’s been wonderful to see.”

Capitalist is on track right now to complete a book of 160 mares at Newgate Farm. It’s slightly down on the robust 200-plus he’s covered in every previous season at stud, but that is more about management than anything else.

In the upcoming catalogue for the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Capitalist has 42 yearlings from 27 respective vendors. He continues to be a dream horse for Field in almost every sense of the word.

“Outside of this unseasonably bad patch of weather, he’s done absolutely nothing wrong,” the studmaster said. “When you combine his earnings in New Zealand and Australia, he was the highest-earning first-season sire in history globally, so it’s really lovely to see his horses are still going forward.”