🔒 🔒 ‘You either come from Newcastle or you wish you did’ – the Novocastrian path to racing’s millions

Australian Bloodstock is closing in on a figure that tells the story of a remarkable racing enterprise.

Yet the tally only partly explains how two Newcastle businessmen turned a shared obsession into one of the country’s leading ownership operations.

With $99,653,857 in prize money already accumulated and proudly listed on their website, Jamie Lovett and Luke Murrell are approaching the $100 million mark that would have seemed an unlikely prospect when they launched Australian Bloodstock in 2009.

The figure is tantalisingly close, with seven runners carrying the distinctive royal blue, white horseshoe and black-and-white checked silks at Newcastle on Saturday, when the $1 million Hunter offers a fitting opportunity to reach it.

Infancy and Lord Of Biscay will contest the feature, while Zahav tackles the Group 3 Spring Stakes, giving the syndicators several chances to increase their tally further.

For Lovett and Murrell, the numbers reflect a clear purpose from the outset: finding horses capable of winning Australia’s biggest races, particularly the Melbourne Cup.

Both came from backgrounds in finance and real estate, bringing commercial experience to an industry in which their passion for racing long preceded their professional involvement.

Their operation began with smaller ownership ventures before developing into an international bloodstock enterprise focused on identifying horses overseas and bringing them to Australia.

A breakthrough came in 2014, when Protectionist’s Melbourne Cup victory transformed Australian Bloodstock’s standing, bringing international recognition and attracting a wider ownership following.

Eight years later, Gold Trip delivered a second Cup triumph, confirming that Protectionist’s success was no isolated stroke of fortune.

Other significant results include Tosen Stardom’s dual Group 1 victories in the Emirates Stakes and Toorak Handicap, Brave Smash’s Manikato Stakes and Futurity Stakes double, Shraaoh’s Sydney Cup, and Top Ranked’s Epsom Handicap.

In all, Australian Bloodstock has been involved in 17 Group 1 victories, 317 Group and Listed race wins and more than 1100 individual race victories.

Australian Bloodstock is a Newcastle operation.

Its ties to the regional NSW city run deep, with horses in work under Kris Lees and Nathan Doyle among approximately 100 spread across some of the east coast’s most prominent stables.

Its Hunter Valley interests also extend to a broodmare band agisted on Lovett’s farm, providing a domestic source of racehorses that is set to expand further in 2027.

“We’re very Newcastle. That’s the fun thing I always say, you either come from Newcastle or you wish you did,” Lovett told The Straight.

“Born and bred. I’ve obviously been around, but I’ve always landed back here. I don’t think I’d ever do it any different.

“There was a time I thought I could see myself retiring at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, but I don’t know.

“I can certainly see myself out there in the winter. But I’ve got four kids and plenty of family and I love it here.”

Newcastle has never restricted the operation’s reach, with Protectionist helping establish a reputation that has endured for more than a decade.

Protectionist’s victory remains the first and so far the only Melbourne Cup triumph for a German-trained horse.

By bringing him to Australia, Australian Bloodstock helped open new possibilities for owners seeking European stamina, a strategy that once bordered on novelty but has since become an established route to Melbourne Cup success.

“It took until about 2014 for us to obviously win the Cup,” Lovett said.

“And then with that came a fair bit of support from owners and, I guess, a bit more focus on what we were doing.

“We were trying to buy those staying horses out of Europe and it’s become the norm now. There weren’t as many doing it back then.”

The standalone Newcastle meeting, established in 2019, gives Lovett another opportunity to turn his attention home after a hectic spring.

The Hunter remains an elusive race for Australian Bloodstock and trainer Kris Lees but Lovett has learned that backyard success can take time.

Lees trains Infancy and Lord Of Biscay as part of a three-horse team for the Hunter and Lovett hopes they can give a home-town crowd something to celebrate, as Mugatoo did when winning the 2020 Newcastle Gold Cup.

“We’ve had three placings in The Hunter but we haven’t won it. It took us a long while to win a Newcastle Cup too, but we got there eventually,” Lovett said.