Newgate making racehorses at Sydney’s midweek meeting

Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

Written by Jessica Owers

Sydney’s midweek meeting was at Canterbury Park on Wednesday, with the track rated a Heavy 8 from significant overnight rainfall. The first event of the day was the Blue Point at Darley H. over 1100 metres, and a small field of six 2-year-olds headed to post.

Race favouritism was shared by the Newgate gelding Almighty Rising (Flying Artie) and Mikki Isle (Jpn) gelding Dragonstone, and the pair battled it out in a blanket finish with Celtic Harp (No Nay Never {USA}) and outsider Fangirl (Sebring).

The photo finish went the way of Almighty Rising, with less than 0.4l separating the four horses across the line.

Making a racehorse of him

Newgate gelding Almighty Rising is trained at Rosehill by the Hawkes team. The trainers thought enough of the horse in February to debut him in the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude (Colts and Geldings) at Caulfield, but he was last in that effort.

“Wayne had a bit of an opinion of this horse in Melbourne, and we put him in the deep end, but obviously he didn’t come to hand that day,” said Michael Hawkes, who was trackside at Canterbury on Wednesday. “We put him in the paddock and gelded him, and just tried to make a racehorse of him.”

Almighty Rising was second in a trial return last week, which pleased his trainers, but Hawkes said the horse was still learning.

“He did everything right, but he’s still wanting to learn a bit,” the trainer said. “He’s still running around in the straight, but once he gets his mind to it, I think he’s going to be a nice horse.”

The gelding jumped from barrier six on Wednesday, which was widest of all runners, and was quick getting to the lead. He held onto it for the entirety of the race, challenged only in the dying strides by the eventual placegetters.

“This is his starting point, being only his second start in a race,” Hawkes added. “Newgate have been good supporters of ours, and we’ve got another win on the board for them, which is good. Hopefully it’s onwards and upwards, and for the stallion, Flying Artie, too.”

Tommy Berry was in the saddle for the win, and said the young horse had showed him plenty.

“I was really pleased with him in his trial, and I felt like he might have needed the run,” the jockey said. “He had a bit of a blow the other day, so he’ll definitely take improvement out of it. He’s still very raw.”

Berry said it was standard procedure for the Hawkes to race a horse within days of a good trial, but added that Almighty Rising has more to come.

“He’s got more than what he gave today,” Berry said. “He probably got a bit tired and wanted to wander around. But it’s a good stepping stone for him.”

Ruud pedigree

Almighty Rising is a half-brother to the three-time Group-winning filly Ruud Awakening (Bernardini {USA}), who raced in New Zealand and won, among other races, the G1 Auckland Diamond S. She cost $675,000 as a broodmare in 2015, selling at the Magic Millions National Sale from Attunga Stud’s draft to Paul Moroney Bloodstock.

It’s a family that features the Sydney Listed winner Chester County (Hennessy {USA}), along with the two-time Group 2 winner Ruud Van Slaats (NZ) (Van Nistelrooy {USA}).

The dam of Almighty Rising, Dawn Almighty (Danehill {USA}), was a $330,000 yearling in 2003, selling from Coolmore’s draft on the Gold Coast to Strawberry Hill Stud.

Almighty Rising himself was withdrawn from both Inglis’ and Magic Millions’ weanlings sales in 2019, and was passed in as a yearling at the Melbourne Premier Sale last year with a $50,000 reserve.

His metropolitan win on Wednesday is a welcome result for Henry Field and his Newgate partners, which includes, in this case, SF Bloodstock, Horse Ventures and WinStar Farm.

Along with nine horses that trialled at Randwick on Tuesday morning for Newgate and China Horse Club, Almighty Rising is for sale, and will be campaigned by the Hawkes team with an eye on the gelding's rehoming, either locally or further afield to the Hong Kong and Singapore markets.