Newgate Farm purchased an interest in Brutal after he won the Group I ATC Doncaster Mile in April and the decision to keep the handsome son of O’Reilly in training as a 4-year-old looks set to pay off bigtime following an impressive return to racing in Saturday’s $500,000 Group II ATC Premiere Stakes (1200m).

Trained by John, Michael and Wayne Hawkes, Brutal may have earned himself a shot at the $14 million The Everest after denting a few reputations on Saturday.

Making a fast start under Tommy Berry, Brutal travelled on the outside of the veteran Starspangledbanner import Home Of The Brave (IRE) and the two fought out the race with popular Everest fancy Classique Legend a strong third.

Brutal advances his record to five wins and two placings from eight starts with earnings of $2,578,650.

Michael Hawkes was non-committal about the next start for Brutal and whether they would accept a slot in The Everest.

“We don’t decide on raceday, never have and not about to start. Everyone will be talking about his next start,” Wayne Hawkes said.

“He won the Doncaster at his seventh start, Newgate bought into half of him, not that it worries us but what we have to do is get the horse back and get him to the races in one piece and we did that today.

“The Sydney Stakes is there then obviously on to the Golden Eagle a $7.5 million race in his own backyard at Rosehill. These are the things we have to talk about.

“We will not rush but I have no doubt there will be plenty of people knocking on the door (for The Everest) that’s something Dad, Wayne and I have to talk about, there’s a lot of people in this horse.

“The Golden Eagle has been his main aim but we are open to change, I’m just excited the horse has come back. He wasn’t 100 percent fit today but he showed his true class.”