Newgate Farm has announced that four-time Group 1 winner Criterion will join their stallion roster when he retires from racing at the end of the 2016 Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival.
Criterion has recorded four wins at the highest level of racing during his outstanding racing career. Photo by: Steve Hart
Criterion has not been seen at the races since he failed to fire in the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup (2000m) in December, but he is set to take part in an exhibition gallop at Moonee Valley tonight before he returns to the races in the Group 1 Canterbury Stakes (1300m) on March 5 and contests the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes (1500m) on March 19.
The son of Sebring will defend his Queen Elizabeth Stakes title on April 9 in what is set to be his final race start before he begins a new career as a stallion at Newgate Farm.
Criterion showed plenty of early talent as a two-year-old, but has only gotten better as he has gotten older and Newgate Farm Managing Director Henry Field said that he was absolutely delighted to have acquired the incredibly versatile racehorse.
“It is a real privilege to be entrusted by Sir Owen Glenn with such an exceptional racehorse in Criterion,” Field said.
“He excelled over all distances, under any conditions and at every age.
“A properly fast and highly talented juvenile, Criterion stood with the top of his generation at two.
“He danced every dance through the rest of his career, developing into one of the toughest and most versatile racehorses of the modern era.
“He is the type of horse every breeder dreams of breeding and every owner dreams of owning.”
Sir Owen Glenn bred Criterion himself and the entire has taken him right around the world in the past two years, while claiming Group 1 victories in the 2014 Rosehill Guineas, 2014 Australian Derby, 2015 Queen Elizabeth Stakes and 2015 Ladbrokes Caulfield Stakes.
Glenn said that Criterion is easily the best horse that he has ever owned and he is confident that the five-year-old will have a great deal of success in his upcoming career as a stallion at Newgate Farm.
“Criterion has meant so much to our family and is the horse of a lifetime,” Glenn said.
“He deserves only the very best and we are confident we have chosen the farm that will give him every opportunity to achieve lasting success.”
Criterion has recorded 7 wins from his 33 race starts and accumulated over $7 million in prizemoney.
