Newgate Stud Farm has purchased a 50 per cent stake in Brutal, the last-start winner of the Doncaster Mile at Randwick, with the intention for the star colt to race on.
Brutal will not be whisked off to stud like many other Group 1-winning colts as a key component of the deal will see the horse continue his racing career, remaining in the care of Hawkes Racing.
His four-year-old season targets are expected to include the $7.5 million Golden Eagle at Rosehill in the spring and $5m All-Star Mile at Caulfield the following autumn.
The deal now places Brutal as the most valuable horse currently racing in Australia, although the final figure is undisclosed.
Brutal’s managing-owner Rupert Legh was adamant that a deal would only be struck with a stud that would have the horse continue his racing career.
“Having Brutal race on was very important to us,” Legh said.
“Racing needs good horses, especially after the recent retirement of Winx and The Autumn Sun.
“Brutal is only lightly raced, he has just had seven starts, and we really believe that he has much more to give on the track.
“Newgate are of the same mindset and we hope that he comes back in the spring, and then race on for another year or two.
“It will all come down to the horse, he will tell us.”
Henry Field, Newgate’s Managing Director, said it was ‘all about the intangible with horses like Brutal’.
“He just ticks so many boxes for us,” Field said.
“We had a similar situation with Russian Revolution last year, he came back to win a Group 1 as a four-year-old before retiring to stud.
“I have great confidence in Brutal being the real deal, he was able to win hard-held by five lengths on debut as a two-year-old at Caulfield, and then become the lightest-raced winner of the Doncaster as a three-year-old.
“He is a special horse, we are looking forward to racing with his ownership group and he will still wear Rupert’s colours whenever he races.”
Brutal is a son of champion New Zealand stallion O’Reilly and was purchased for $220,000 at the 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Sale at Karaka. He has won four of his seven starts, earning $2,289,650 in prizemoney.
-Shane Anderson, Racing.com
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