Extreme Choice Colt Sets Classic Record on First Day

A colt by the brilliant yet sub-fertile stallion Extreme Choice set a new record for an Inglis Classic Yearling Sale Feb. 6, selling for AU$775,000 (US$548,127) during a stunning opening day of trade in which buyers splashed out more than AU$26 million in search of their next racetrack star.

Leading agent James Harron was a key player in driving the session's unprecedented Classic spending spree, zeroing in on the well-credentialed Bell River Thoroughbreds-pinhooked Extreme Choice colt (Lot 100), one of 35 lots to make AU$200,000 or more.

The new benchmark for a Classic sale, surpassing the previous high of AU$625,000, was in part achieved due to the immense demand and limited supply of progeny by Newgate stallion Extreme Choice but by no means was the top lot an outlier at Riverside Stables.

The underlying strength of the Australian bloodstock market, which also reached new heights at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale last month, flowed through to the Classic sale where 207 horses were traded at an average of AU$127,271 ($90,013).

The 20% year-on-year increase in the average coincided with the median increasing to AU$110,000 ($77,798), up $20,000 on the same day last year, and $30,000 on the overall 2021 Classic sale. The aggregate closed at AU$26,345,000 ($18,632,800), up on the AU$21,418,000 which changed hands on day one last year, itself a then-record.

For comparison, and in a sign of the sustained demand for bloodstock, the 2022 Magic Millions five-session Book 1 Gold Coast sale saw its year-on-year average climb by 16% and its median by 28%.

The attraction of the top-priced lot was obvious to many, being by the same sire as Longines Golden Slipper (G1) winner Stay Inside, group 2 winner Tiger Of Malay, high-class sprinting colt Extreme Warrior, and 3-year-old Espiona, already anointed by many pundits as her generation's star filly, among his six stakes winners from just 33 runners.

At least three parties were making a play for the impressive colt at prices above the previous Inglis Classic record price, which was set last year, and perhaps not unexpectedly, it was Harron, bidding via the phone to Inglis' James Price while sitting in a Riverside Stables corporate suite, who was able to land a knockout blow to Newgate Farm's Henry Field, the underbidder and studmaster who stands Extreme Choice.

Harron saw the purchase of the yearling as an important addition to his clients' portfolio of colts.  

"You start to learn about certain breeds and I think he was very typical of what we have seen of the good Extreme Choices," Harron told ANZ Bloodstock News.

"He had a really masculine head, fantastic depth of girth, he's medium size, but he is a very good-moving horse.

"He's got a wonderful attitude and that's all you keep hearing from people about the good Extreme Choices, just how wonderful their attitudes are. Not A Single Doubt, his sire, were also very unflappable types of horses and trainers love them.

"He ticks all those boxes, so to speak, and let's hope he's fast."

Purchased for AU$220,000 ($169,978) as a weanling from the Magic Millions National Sale by agent Bevan Smith and James Ferguson of Bell River Thoroughbreds from the Kenmore Lodge draft, the record-breaking colt is the fifth foal out of the dual group 3-placed juvenile Murtle Turtle, by Murtajill.

She is already the dam of three winners, two of them who have won as juveniles: Hurtle and California Deeply who was victorious at Warwick Farm in December.

Jock Ferguson revealed the horse—one of only three colts by the champion Newgate Farm first-season sire in the Classic sale and 14 in Extreme Choice's third crop—would have headed to the recent Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale if it wasn't for some persuasiveness from Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch.

"Obviously we were very nervous going into the ring. We were anxious to see what he'd make and we just wanted to get him there safely," said Ferguson, who runs Bell River Thoroughbreds with his father Andrew and brother James. 

"Inglis has done an outstanding job and a special mention to Sebastian Hutch, he convinced us to bring the colt to this sale and he hasn't disappointed us. 

"All the team at Inglis work so hard to get the people here and they've got a great sale here." 

The respect that leading buyers paid to Bell River Thoroughbreds' ability to raise a high-caliber horse at their Dungog farm during a pivotal growth period, from a weanling to yearling, was an important aspect of yesterday's result for the Fergusons.

"James Harron is a great judge, he's bought some very good colts in the past, and there were numerous underbidders that are good judges," he said.

"When you've got those judges on the horse, you know that they're going to go to a good home and you know that you've got a quality horse under your belt."

Harron, who bought seven yearlings from last year's Classic sale, also purchased a colt by Capitalist (Lot 122) from the Newgate Farm draft for AU$375,000 ($265,223) and a Redbank North and Huntworth Stud-consigned son (Lot 211) of Pariah, a horse his partnership raced until retiring to Arrowfield Stud, for AU$210,000 ($148,525).

"You're seeing some people really supporting it (Classic) in terms of the vendors making it their number one sale. For example, that (Extreme Choice) horse could have gone to any sale in Australia and done very, very well," Harron said.

"The fact that they've brought him here, I guess it was nearly a full circle for them, having bred, offered, and sold Extreme Choice here (at Classic), so I am sure it was part of their plan to get back here where they've had that success."

Another Extreme Choice colt (Lot 86) sold for AU$150,000 ($106,089) to Warwick Farm trainer Gary Portelli while the final Extreme Choice colt at the Classic sale will be offered as Lot 313 by breeder Mane Lodge Feb. 7.

Hutch Happy With Record Opener

Inglis Bloodstock's Hutch was delighted that the work the company undertook during the spring when compiling the Classic catalog found favor with buyers Sunday and he expects the market sentiment to be maintained over the next two days.

"There were some really important horses sold today, obviously a new record price for the sale and that was a particular objective for the sale, we felt like we could break the record," Hutch said.

"Fundamentally, you're just happy to see people who support the sale achieve some fantastic results and similarly have, almost without exclusion, all the biggest names in Australian racing participating at the buying side of things. 

"Whether they managed to buy or were underbidders, that's also very satisfying. You're marrying the two together and delivering results that people are very pleased with."

Day two starts at 10 a.m. local time Monday.