Crabtree Relishes Group 1 Success with She's Extreme

Successful breeder Robert Crabtree of Dorrington Farm rarely makes a foray into the cat-and-mouse game of yearling buying, but when he does it is certainly worth taking note.

Crabtree has only purchased one horse at a yearling sale under his Dorrington Farm banner, that being a Fastnet Rock  filly for AU$220,000 (US$165,946) in 2016. Named Catchy, she would the next year go on to win the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (G1) in his famed red and white checkered silks. 

Crabtree added another group 1 winner to his yearling buying resume as She's Extreme led from pillar to post to land the Moet & Chandon Champagne Stakes (G1) at Randwick April 16.

A $275,000 ($210,774) buy for Anthony Cummings at last year's Inglis Easter sale, Crabtree shortly after made his play to acquire 50% of the daughter of Extreme Choice, a stallion that, despite having posted exceptional figures from his first two crops, has been plagued by fertility issues, a very fact which led Crabtree to the Willow Park-consigned filly in the first instance. 

"Extreme Choice I think is potentially the best stallion we have seen for a very long time, but he has a bad fertility problem," Crabtree told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.  

"I sent a mare to him but I couldn't get her in foal so I thought the next best thing would be to go and buy one. I looked everywhere and she was the one I settled on, for her pedigree as well as type, and the rest is history, as they say.

"I very rarely buy yearlings, but I'm happy to dip into the market for something I couldn't breed. The year I bought Catchy I did so because I had four black type Fastnet Rock (mares) and I just wanted another one, so now I've got five. They're just top up positions for me, and it's based on pedigrees and type, but pedigrees primarily because I want them to be a breeding proposition."

In becoming the second individual group 1 winner for Newgate Farm's Extreme Choice, She's Extreme denied star filly Fireburn a history-making Triple Crown success, with the Gary Portelli-trained filly having won the Longines Golden Slipper Stakes (G1) before beating She's Extreme in the Inglis ATC Sires Produce Stakes (G1) a fortnight ago. 

She's Extreme earned a milestone 50th win or placed result in group 1 races for horses either bred, sold, or raced by Dorrington Farm. For Crabtree, success in the Champagne Stakes is a result he takes particular merit from, despite the yearning for sprinting juveniles in the bloodstock market. 

"It (ranks) very high. We haven't competed in the Champagne before. We've been runner-up in Sires' and won Diamonds and things like that, but this was just a different level," Crabtree said.

"So many of the horses that compete in the Slipper don't go on with it, but our filly did and she's stepped up and stepped up again having been second in the Sires' to Fireburn, who is probably the best 2-year-old in the country."

She's Extreme is out of the So Secret  mare Keysbrook, a AU$1,750 ($1,675) yearling who went on to place second in the Schweppes W.A.T.C Derby (G2), recording a victory at 2100 meters.

"I don't think (She's Extreme) will win at 1200 meters again. I think she'll be 1400 to 2000 (meters)," Crabtree said. "Her mum was placed in a Western Australian Derby and that's what gave us the confidence to really treat it like a staying race."

She's Extreme is the third produce for Keysbrook, who last year was bought by Randwick Bloodstock Agency for AU$60,000 ($44,149) out of the Inglis Digital June (Late) Sale. 

It is the Inglis Digital platform that provided the foundations for the success story of She's Extreme, having been pinhooked by Colm Santry and Michael Kirwan when picked out of the June (Late) sale a year earlier for AU$32,500 ($23,898).

It is success that was not lost on Crabtree in the early part of his career, with at the time of purchasing She's Extreme, Extreme Choice had just weeks earlier provided the Longines Golden Slipper winner courtesy of Stay Inside. 

"I'm not surprised by (Extreme Choice's) success. But we observed it pretty quickly as he has such low numbers and such a high degree in performance, he was going to be elite," Crabtree said. "He's probably the best sire in Australia, statistically at least. It's so hard to get a horse that can genuinely pass his precocity on, and he has.

"I thought it was a balanced pedigree," he added on She's Extreme, who he purchased after seeking the advice of Mick Price, underbidder on the filly as a yearling and trainer of Extreme Choice. 

"There's nothing pure in pedigrees, but I thought it showed such potential and the individual matched up to that. She was a taller filly than what you expect being by Extreme Choice. We thought she might be a Guineas filly or even an Oaks. It's fair to say we think we've got a very good horse for the future as well as for now.

Crabtree again tried to tap into the blood of Extreme Choice during the last breeding season, sending his group 1-winning juvenile filly Catchy to the stallion on a November cover, but unfortunately, the mare, who has produced three fillies to I Am Invincible , Zoustar  and Too Darn Hot , missed to the stallion, who also won the Blue Diamond. 

However, it leaves Crabtree more inclined to utilize Stay Inside, who presents for his first season at Newgate Farm at a fee of AU$77,000 (US$56,173).

"I sent Catchy there and she missed. Catchy had three fillies in a row and then I put her on a late cover to Extreme Choice. It would have been a beautiful physical for her, albeit a little close in Danehill for me, so I may well look at his son this year, Stay Inside. That would put Danehill one generation further back," Crabtree said.

"The overriding idea with Catchy having gone to Extreme Choice was that the physical was just outstanding. He's not diminutive, but he's quite short with a lovely hindquarter, and she's a massive mare and beautifully built."

Despite his burgeoning record for identifying high-class yearlings, including Catchy and She's Extreme, Crabtree said does not see himself delving into the yearling market frequently. 

"I breed them pretty well. It will just be an occasional foray for me!"