This year’s Royal Ascot meeting already fits in the unforgettable category for Newgate Farm, but it has the chance to be taken to a new stratosphere on Saturday.
Artorius will be striving to give the Hunter Valley farm and their partners a second Group 1 success for the week when he contests the Platinum Jubilee Stakes (1200m).
Victory by the son of Flying Artie would be even more significant than State Of Rest’s win in Wednesday’s Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (2000m).
That was the fourth Group 1 win for the son of Starspangledbanner, who has won on three different continents.
Artorius’s appeal would broaden astronomically if he could account for a field that includes compatriot Home Affairs, who is already attached to a $110,000 service fee later this year.
Newgate bought in to the Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained colt after he won last year’s Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) and while he hasn’t won since, he has run placings in Caulfield Guineas (1600m) and Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at the elite level.
He is already assured of a place alongside his father at Newgate, but Field is convinced he can enhance exactly where he slots in on the promotional material on Saturday.
“He’s obviously been a high-level Group 1 horse and run massive races in a bunch of top-level Group 1s in Australia,” Field said.
“I just think Ascot will really suit him; the track, the set-up and the way the race is run.”
Artorius hasn’t started since finishing sixth in the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m), when one of the runs of the race. That was also Home Affairs most recent outing with the Coolmore colt finishing ninth.
“He’s going to be hard to beat, Home Affairs, he’s a very good horse, but I think it’s worth having a crack and I think he’ll run a big race,” Field said, while also pointing that Artorius and Home Affairs have met three times with Artorius holding a 2-1 head-to-head advantage.
While Platinum Jubilee Stakes success would enhance his value immensely, it is unlikely he will be off to stud this year with connections keen to pursue the rich Sydney spring carnival later in the year.
“The plan at this stage is to race on and bring him back for The Everest and Golden Eagle,” Field said.
