Artorius to Stand at Newgate Upon Retirement

Dual group 1 winner Artorius  will stand at Newgate Farm for an introductory fee of AU$27,500 (US$18,320, AU$1=US$0.6662) with the stallion set to take up residence at Henry Field's Hunter Valley operation when he returns from his second trip to Royal Ascot later this year.  

Famed for his explosive turn of foot, Artorius has so far won three of his 16 starts, spearheaded by his win in the Blue Diamond Stakes (G1), in which he defeated subsequent nine-time group 1 winner Anamoe, while he notched up his second group 1 success earlier this year with an equally impressive triumph in the Canterbury Stakes (G1) at Randwick.

The Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained 4-year-old, who also finished second on three occasions and third four times, has so far accrued AU$2,198,349 ($1,598,849) in career prize money. He will get one more chance to add to his kitty when he lines up for his swansong in the Platinum Jubilee Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot June 24, a race he dead-heated for third in last year.

"We're very glad to have him and I think he is what they are after in Australia, because he is an elite-class sprinter who possesses a lot of speed," Newgate's director of bloodstock Bruce Slade told ANZ Bloodstock News. "There is no one-off race, there is no one-off rating, every race he just turns up, always fights out the finish, and if you are the horse in the race leading 300-200 meters out, you know that he is coming for you.

"He is just a beauty, who I think is extremely well-priced. We approached this thinking about a price that was going to get breeders thinking we had priced him at a great value. He is at a price point that every breeder in Australia can access and use, and I think off the back of that he is going to prove very popular."

Bred by Greg Perry, Artorius was bought by the Freedmans and Julian Blaxland's Blue Sky Bloodstock from the Vinery Stud draft for AU$120,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2020 and he is one of two winners out of the unraced Redoute's Choice  mare Gracie's Lass .

Gracie's Lass herself is a daughter of U.S. stakes winner Grace and Power  (More Than Ready), who was also placed grade 1 level, and she is also the dam of Delectation , winner of the 2015 running of the Darley Classic (G1).

Slade said the fee for the stallion will remain unchanged for his first season at stud regardless of the result at Royal Ascot and Newgate are also not ruling out the option to reverse shuttle the stallion, if the right partners come to the table.

"He will go over for the second year running and all the owners will head over there again. They all had such a good time last time and they will go back over there," Slade said. "We know exactly what to expect, he will run an absolute bottler again. But it's pretty cool for breeders that you go in and you pay the AU$25,000 now and we're not going to change the fee on them and we're not going to play around with it.

Artorius will stand his first season at Newgate alongside fellow newbies, State Of Rest  and In The Congo, who will command fees of AU$44,000 and AU$33,000, respectively. Slade said the new duo have been received well by breeders and will likely cover a full book of mares later this year.