Wild Ruler Turf Monthly October 2022

WILD RULER

ANOTHER NEWGATE STANDOUT

Wild Ruler is a Group 1 winning son of Snitzel who joins quite a stunning roster of stallions at Newgate Farm this season. He joins a total of 25 sons of that stallion who are at stud in Australia this season which rivals the domination of the great Danehill at the height of his popularity. With so many sons of Snitzel at stud, it becomes quite difficult to stand out from the others and offer something unique for broodmare owners. Certainly, the racetrack performance of Wild Ruler ticks all of the boxes for commercial success, but is that enough?

The colt won the Nursery Stakes over 1000m at Randwick at his first start in December 2019. After a spell and missing the Golden Slipper, he returned with a second to Macroura over 1000m on the Kensington. In Brisbane for the Winter Wild Ruler was third behind the boom horse, Rothfire in the Group 2 Classic before finishing eight behind that star in the JJ Atkins. Returning as a 3yo, Wild Ruler was a good winner of the Listed Heritage Stakes and Roman Consul before heading to Melbourne to run third behind September Run in the Group 1 Coolmore. The Autumn saw Wild Ruler win the Listed Fireball before finding Eduardo too good in the 1100m Group 1 Galaxy finishing sixth. He then won the Group 2 Arrowfield Stud Stakes over 1200m at Randwick beating Isotope and Prague. Off to Brisbane

again he was ninth to Eduardo in the Doomben 10,000. As a Spring 4yo Wild Ruler started his season by running second to Nature Strip in the Group 3 Concorde. He then went to Melbourne for his finest moment in winning the Group 1 Moir Stakes over 1000m at Moonee Valley beating The Inferno and Trekking. A poor run in the Everest was followed by a spell and he returned to win two trials in Sydney. It was then to Melbourne where another substandard run in the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate saw him retired.

As a son of Snitzel, Wild Ruler joins a host of other sons at stud. Snitzel of course is an outstanding sire who has won the Champion Sires Title and has sired over 100 individual stakes winners. Among these are such horses as Estijaab, Redzel, Shamus Award, Trapeze Artist and Russian Revolution. The female line of Wild Ruler is therefore likely to play an important role in his future. He is a son of the US bred Gypsy Robin by Daaher. She was a multiple Grade 2 winner in her home country winning the Keeneland Raven Run and Beaumont Stakes as well as running third in the Grade 1 Saratoga Test Stakes. Daaher is a son of Awesome Again who is perhaps best known as the sire of the champion Ghostzapper. Gypsy Robin perhaps importantly was a half-sister to another stakes winner in Tiger Cat Lily who was by Tale Of The Cat. It is a family that has had little impact in Australia although we did see one line here that produced Lord Galaxy who won the 1986 Goodwood Handicap among his five stakes race victories in Adelaide.

Wild Ruler has a pedigree that sees Danehill through his son Redoute’s Choice, and of course the influence of Snippets in Snitzel’s female line. By and large though it is an outcross pedigree and some of the key names include Awesome Again, In Excess, Seattle Slew and Great Nephew that may present some opportunities for breeders. The most obvious influences though are the local ones, and while Redoute’s Choice may not be a stallion to be bringing in through a mare, many other Danehill line stallions will represent good options. Again we should consider the benefits of pushing Danehill back as far as we can in a pedigree. Nevertheless mares from stallions like Choisir, Exceed And Excel and Fastnet Rock are all likely to have quality daughters who may do well with the stallion. We also have sons of most of these that will also fit the bill. We cannot forget that this includes Giant’s Causeway who is the sire of Shamardal whose descendants are becoming more available in Australia. It is also perhaps quite significant that Shamardal is a close relation to Street Cry who is another stallion whose presence in a pedigree could be of benefit to the stallion.

We earlier mentioned a successful runner from the family that was by Tale Of The Cat, a son of Storm Cat. Storm Bird appears in the female line of Snitzel and mares that feature this stallion and his descendants might well be very compatible.

This also extends to many other Northern Dancer line stallions including Sadler’s Wells and his descendants like Galileo and High Chaparral. Another clue that could be gleaned from history is the broodmare sires that have had success with Snitzel. These are quite varied and include the likes of Success Express, Zabeel, Last Tycoon, Encosta De Lago and Rory’s Jester. These are becoming much harder to find but I would suggest that mares carrying these lines elsewhere in their pedigrees may be worth pursuing. One word of caution though is that the stallion lacks any real stamina in his pedigree unless we consider that Awesome Again may fit that bill. It may be worthwhile looking for some of those stamina influences and we might just find that Wild Ruler will be able to sire some far more versatile types than we first imagine.

As a complete contrast to some of the other Freshman stallions we have looked at, Wild Ruler looks like he will suit a wide range of mares. He may just be the next big stallion that Newgate brings to Australian breeding and should give breeders a good chance of producing not only good commercial return, but also some quality racing stock.