JESSICA OWERS visits the burgeoning Newgate Farm in the Hunter Valley and spends some time with its young gun proprietor, who is taking head on the big boys of thoroughbred breeding.
On the wide, willowy slopes of the Segenhoe Valley, Deep Field is making a lot of noise. The stretchy, nut-coloured sprinter is a stallion now, housed on the tidy grounds of Henry Field’s Newgate Farm. His passage into sire-hood has been molten: fully booked, over 300 enquiries. He’s moved quickly. In just 11 months, Deep Field has gone from a maiden win at Gosford to his place as one of the in-demand stallions for 2015.
Under saddle, the son of Northern Meteor cracked a Canterbury record, won a Group 2 and was placed in Group 1 company. He has a female page that goes back to the great foundation mare Eight Carat, and a sire-line shooting targets all over the place. Deep Field is well positioned to get quick, early running youngsters, so in both the physical sense and the proverbial, he hasn’t mucked around. But then, neither has his studmaster.