Criterion to join Newgate Farm sire roster

Friday 19 February 2016, 4:11pm

International campaigner Criterion will bow out of racing to stand his first season at stud later this year.

A rising six-year-old who has raced at the highest level over four seasons, Criterion will be retired to Newgate Farm in the NSW Hunter Valley.

But before Criterion joins an emerging stallion roster at Newgate, the weight-for-age star will try to win the $4 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes for the second time.

"He'll follow the same to the race as he did last year," co-trainer Tom Dabernig said.

That puts Criterion on course to resume racing in the Group One Canterbury Stakes at Randwick on March 5.

The entire will then contest the Group One George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill before chasing back-to-back Queen Elizabeth Stakes wins at Randwick on April 9.

Criterion shares the second line of Queen Elizabeth betting at $8 with Japanese star Isla Bonita behind Winx who is the clear-cut $2.80 favourite.

Trained by David Payne to win the Black Opal Stakes as a two-year-old as well as the Rosehill Guineas and ATC Australian Derby as a three-year-old, Criterion was transferred to David Hayes and Dabernig's Lindsay Park operation after the 2014 Mackinnon Stakes.

He created an immediate impression for the training partnership when third in the 2014 Hong Kong Cup.

During an extended overseas campaign last year, Criterion finished third in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Sha Tin before running in the Prince Of Wales's Stakes and the Juddmonte International in England.

Criterion was unplaced in both English starts but he returned to Australia in the same form as when he left, winning the Caulfield Stakes before finishing in the placings in the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup.

Newgate's roster is heavily stacked with young stallions including Foxwedge, Dissident, Deep Field and Wandjina.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »