Matthew Sandblom's famous green and purple silks might not be on display at Kembla Grange on Saturday, but if you look closely, the Kiama breeder's fingerprints will be all over the meeting.
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The successful businessman owns a share of four horses in the day's feature race, the Group 3 Up and Coming Stakes.
It's a crop that includes favourite Tiger Of Malay, Construct, Revivalist and Concocted.
In many ways, the quartet represent what Sandblom loves about horse racing, bloodlines and breeding.
The Up and Coming Stakes is a black-type race for three-year-olds, seven of the starters colts looking to secure a future as a stallion.
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While Tiger Of Malay is almost assured of a career at stud thanks to his Group 2 Sires Produce victory in Queensland, Sandblom's three other runners are yet to breakthrough at Group level.
Saturday will mark the first black-type race for both Revivalist and Concocted, while Construct contested a number of two-year-old features, finishing second in October's Breeders Plate and seventh in the Blue Diamond.
"It's a good chance to test them out, see who stands up," Sandblom said. "A couple have to step up, Tiger Of Malay is a decent horse, the other ones need to prove they're up to this level.
"It's good the trainers think they're good enough. That's why we buy these colts, as potential stallion material. They have to race in these races to prove that."
The four runners will wear the China Horse Club colours as the primary owners.
Sandblom's involvement comes through his Horse Ventures operation and Newgate, one of the biggest stud farms in the industry.
The businessman was one of the first investors in the company that has grown considerably since they purchased Capitalist as a yearling for $165,000 at the 2015 Magic Millions Sales.
The horse was bought as the centrepiece of their colts program and went on to claim more than $3.5 million in prize money and the Golden Slipper.
Now, Capitalist stands for $99,000, alongside the likes of Extreme Choice and Flying Artie.
The team at Newgate, led by Henry Field, are judicious when purchasing yearlings, breeding always front of mind at the auctions.
"We look for precocious, well-bred, well-formed yearlings," Sandblom said. "While we do spend a bit of money on them, we try not to go crazy and don't go for the very top-priced ones.
"We're loading up again, like when we launched with Capitalist, Flying Artie, Extreme Choice and Winning Rupert. We've bought the best sons out of three of them and are on a bit of a roll."
A Blue Diamond winner, Extreme Choice is a recently-crowned champion first season sire, producing Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside, a horse Sandblom bred and is now owned by China Horse Club and Newgate.
The stallion also sired Tiger Of Malay and Woodlands Stakes winner Xtremetime.
While horses like Capitalist produce weanlings at an efficient rate, Extreme Choice products are more exclusive.
A lower fertility rate means the stallion can be matched with fewer broodmares each season, with Newgate owning the majority of the horses he's paired with.
Combine that with exceptional results on the track and Extreme Choice yearlings are set to be in high demand at upcoming sales.
"We think he's a stallion with lots of potential," Sandblom said. "The best way to get potential is to breed our own mares with him. We have a couple of slots for other mares, but there will be no single service sale to him.
"The last year or two, people have been a bit reluctant to put mares to him because he's sub-fertile. This year he's got better mares, but there will only be 40-odd mares in foal. I've got six due to foal, so I'm excited about that."
While Sandblom enjoys his work with Newgate, the businessman has other ventures outside the company.
He has long owned Hollymount Stud in Kiama, an operation that's led to a close and successful relationship spanning two decades with the region's leading trainer, Gwenda Markwell.
More recently, Sandblom established Kingstar Farm, a boutique breeding operation that allows him to play around with bloodlines.
Sandblom is realistic about Kingstar's place in the industry, but he's confident success is not far away.
"We're a much smaller operation with cheaper stallions and a smaller book of mares. Black-type success would be a bonus. It's quite hard to get black-type performers with smaller numbers."
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