Cover image courtesy of Inglis
Four fillies were purchased on the Gold Coast for a combined $875,000, with three more added in New Zealand for an outlay of NZ$755,000. They made their eighth acquisition of 2024 when they purchased Lot 98, a daughter of Toronado (Ire) from Lustre Lodge, at $190,000 during Sunday’s opening session of the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.
Explaining how the association came about, Newgate’s Managing Director Henry Field said: “We got chatting with the Ladbrokes team late last year. Part of what they’re doing as a company is trying to support the industry, grow the ownership base and invest in the sport. We got talking to Lachlan Fitt, who’s one of the key players at Ladbrokes (deputy CEO and CFO at Entain) and a very smart guy, and we worked out a joint venture. The aim is to buy some lovely fillies together and race them in partnership with Ladbrokes and their racing club.
“From our point of view, we felt it was worth putting the time, effort and money in with the Ladbrokes team. We feel they’re doing a good thing for the industry with what they’re trying to achieve. We felt that if they wanted us to be a part of that with them, then we’d be only too pleased to do that. What we’ve loved about the experience with Ladbrokes is that you’re dealing with highly intelligent people who love racing. The management are proper racing people and we’re very pleased to be working with them and co-investing with a top organisation.”
“The (Ladbrokes) management are proper racing people and we’re very pleased to be working with them and co-investing with a top organisation.” - Henry Field
Although Newgate and Ladbrokes have ploughed significant investment into the club’s yearling purchases, those wishing to get on board won’t need to pay a thing. Membership is free to all Ladbrokes customers, with the club’s racing manager Dan Cobby explaining that the company wanted to give something back to the industry while providing a gateway to potential owners of the future.
“We want to position Ladbrokes as a real racing brand,” said Cobby. “So we’ve put our support behind the industry through sponsorship, introduced the Ladbrokes Owners Incentive Scheme, we’ve invested heavily in marketing through content stories as well as our Racing.com partnership, which is a five-year agreement.
“We’ve put our support behind the industry through sponsorship, introduced the Ladbrokes Owners Incentive Scheme, we’ve invested heavily in marketing through content stories as well as our Racing.com partnership.” - Dan Cobby
“And the Ladbrokes Racing Club is further adding to that strategy of being a racing-driven business; it’s about giving back to the industry in a different way. If we can give people the best experience possible it gives the industry the best chance to get new people in.”
Dan Cobby
The Ladbrokes Racing Club, which also offers ownership experiences in greyhound and harness racing, was up and running in June 2023. Although this year is the first time the operation has sourced a significant volume of yearlings, they have already enjoyed success with their initial intake of horses.
Leasing agreements were reached with the likes of Arrowfield, Rosemont Stud and John Ferguson, and the club’s colours have already been carried to victory by horses such as the Paul Messara and Leah Gavranich-trained Know Thyself (The Autumn Sun), who struck on debut at Newcastle earlier in the month.
There are already 20,000 members in the club, and Cobby expects this will only grow on the back of the latest equine recruitment drive, which has also seen the club buy into the G3 Concorde S. scorer Remarque (Snitzel), whose next outing is scheduled to be the G2 Challenge S.
“With the exposure this has gained through the yearling sale season and the marketing initiatives, I’d only expect that number (20,000 members) to grow,” he said. “Especially off the back of some success with some progressive horses going into the Sydney and Melbourne carnivals. Remarque heads to the Challenge S. as a likely contender too, so from this point on there’s certainly some ammo there.”
Remarque, winner of the G3 Concorde S. on September 2, 2023 | Image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
Newgate has enjoyed plenty of success with its colts syndicate, and the aim will be to replicate those results now they are investing in fillies too.
“We’ve had a huge amount of success buying colts over the last eight or 10 years but we’ve never really bought any fillies, so we thought we’d venture into this partnership and hopefully it’s successful,” said Field, before explaining the simple brief the buying team are working with.
“We’re just trying to buy runners,” he continued. “At the end of the day, with our colts we’ve built our business on buying runners first and foremost, good racehorses that end up being stallions at Newgate. With Ladbrokes we’re just trying to buy the same: we’re just trying to buy athletes first and foremost. If they can run how they look then we should have a bit of success on the racetrack.”
Henry Field | Image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
The eight yearlings purchased in partnership have been sent to Matt Vella for race schooling and pre-training, although the individual youngsters haven’t been assigned trainers yet.
Cobby added that Ladbrokes would be aiming to utilise the connections they made, be it in the sales, training or racing arenas, to enhance the content, experiences and opportunities the club’s members receive.
“We’re already dabbling with some of the leading trainers and the Newgate partnership will only expand that further,” he said.
As well as being a significant buyer in the yearling market, Newgate has established a firm foothold as a seller at the breeding stock sales. At last year’s Magic Millions Broodmare Sale, Newgate Consignment topped the consignors’ chart with 58 lots grossing $27,358,500. Field said he hoped the fillies being purchased in partnership with Ladbrokes would help consolidate their position at the head of the vendors’ tables in the future.
“We really take a lot of pride in the Newgate broodmare consignment, we’ve been the leading broodmare consignor for a number of years now and that’s something we really like to do well,” he said. “These fillies will be resold in the broodmare consignment and hopefully that’ll bolster that part of our business as well. They’re lovely looking fillies that we’re buying and any that can run should have some nice value in the broodmare market in the years to come.”
Newgate Consignment topped the 2023 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale with Forbidden Love who sold for $4.1 million | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
Field said the partnership would look to buy “a couple more” fillies during the upcoming sales. It is clear he is already relishing the challenge.
“For me, the thing I probably enjoy most of all in this business is looking at horses,” he said. “I love the challenge of trying to buy good horses. I find it not only challenging but therapeutic and really enjoyable. It’s a never-ending education trying to have success buying horses. We’ve had a lot of luck buying colts and hopefully we can have some luck buying fillies too.”
“I love the challenge of trying to buy good horses. I find it not only challenging but therapeutic and really enjoyable. It’s a never-ending education trying to have success buying horses.” - Henry Field
Newgate is not the only operation Ladbrokes have partnered with, as they also signed alongside Chris Waller and Guy Mulcaster when they secured a Proisir colt at NZ$260,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale. And, moreover, the Ladbrokes brand is part of the Entain group, which is also home to TAB New Zealand, where the racing club format is being replicated with a series of other partners.
The TAB Racing Club is due to go live in September and the string will feature eight acquisitions made at NZB's Karaka, namely a Hello Youmzain (Fr) filly (Lot 5, NZ$150,000) bought with Tony Pike; a daughter of Per Incanto (USA) (Lot 50, $100,000) sourced with Roger James and Robert Wellwood; an Ardrossan filly (Lot 79, NZ$170,000) signed for with Stephen Marsh; fillies by Toronado (Ire) (Lot 203, NZ$55,000) and Ardrossan (Lot 586, NZ$180,000) secured with Lance O'Sullivan and Andrew Scott of Wexford Stables; a colt by Savabeel bought in partnership with Te Akau (Lot 358, NZ$300,000); a So You Think (NZ) filly (Lot 494, $150,000) with Ritchie Murray; and a daughter of Proisir (Lot 593, NZ$150,000) bought with Ballymore Stables New Zealand.
Lot 358 - Savabeel x Romantic Time (NZ) (colt) was purchased by TAB Racing Club and David Ellis CNZM (BAFNZ) for NZ$300,000 | Image courtesy of New Zealand Bloodstock
“Within the racing industry we live in such a bubble and we can take it for granted when we have access to the top trainers, jockeys and other participants,” said Cobby. “Not every person has had that access, and that’s been the biggest eye-opener to me: that the experience on raceday of meeting the likes of Chris Waller and James McDonald in the mounting yard, for free, that’s pretty incredible. We want to educate people and hopefully get the next batch of owners into the industry for the years to come.”
