Extreme Choice colt equals record price on day one of National Yearling Sale
Extreme Choice’s (Not A Single Doubt) booming popularity has shone through again after his half-brother to the Group 2-winning Prost (Snitzel) equalled the record price for the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Yearling Sale on Monday.
On a day when Extreme Choice had three of the top four lots – two bred to northern hemisphere time due to demand for the sub-fertile super sire – Lot 1282 was knocked down to Yulong for $850,000 during a robust first session.
Conceived in January but born in December, the colt is out of the city-winning Samarmeteors (Northern Meteor), not only the dam of dual Group winner Prost but a half-sister to the dam of both Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) hero Shinzo (Snitzel) and Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) victress Exhilarates (Snitzel).
The colt’s price matched the sale’s previous high, paid in 2019 by Team Hawkes for the Dundeel (High Chaparral) colt from Arrowfield Stud’s draft who became Santadeal, who was sold to Hong Kong after a Ballarat maiden win.
Extreme Choice – who boasts this season’s Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner Knight’s Choice and Yulong’s Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) hero Devil Knight – had the top two lots in Monday’s first session of the two-day sale. Both came from the draft of Magic Millions boss Gerry Harvey’s Baramul Stud.
Second was Lot 1263, a filly bred to northern hemisphere time, from the same family as another Blue Diamond winner in Danelagh (Danehill), who was knocked down to Springwood of NSW for $240,000.
Extreme Choice also had the day’s fourth-top yearling. Infinity Thoroughbreds’ daughter of the unraced Sheza Shamardal (Shamardal) sold for $160,000 to First Light Racing, Waterhouse-Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds. With this filly also bred to northern hemisphere time, her new connections announced plans to set her for two-year-old honours at Royal Ascot next year.
The Extreme Choice-Samarmeteors colt helped bump up the average on the opening day of the two-day sale, to $44,961, compared to last year’s overall figure of $42,551, which in turn was an increase from $39,582 in 2023.
Monday’s median was $28,000, up from the closing mark of $27,000 in 2024, while 13 lots fetched six figures – the same as on day one last year, but only four short of the total for 2024.
The clearance rate stood at 70.11 per cent, up slightly from last year’s day one figure of 67 per cent, though down slightly on last year’s completed mark of 72.16 per cent, while expected to catch up with late trading.
“It was a healthy day’s trade,” said Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch. “Most of the key numbers are up.
“To have a stronger clearance rate than day one last year – and above 70 per cent – is pleasing enough.
“Obviously, it’s selective out there. When a nice horse walks in and it’s vetted out well, is well conformed and has a pedigree, that’s highly sought after. There’s a good trade market here that are there for those colts.
“To have 13 $100,000 [plus] lots, which is only four short of the end of last year, and to sell 54 horses internationally, while at the end of last year there was 63 – those are great numbers to start today.”
Bowditch said the international interest in the sale had been extremely pleasing, with 12 lots going to buyers from Hong Kong, 11 to the Philippines, nine to New Zealand, seven each to China and Malaysia and four to Thailand.
“We expected a good strong trade market and we expected some different countries in Asia to be prominent, and that was evident,” he said.
“Hong Kong has bought more than they did last year. Thomas Yeung, our new agent in Hong Kong, has been working very hard to get the buyers down here.
“The efforts of [buyers from] China, New Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia were all very, very strong, and I expect Korea to play a strong part tomorrow.
“I thought the international participation was strong and it complemented a satisfactory domestic market.”
The day’s clear headline act – at three-and-a-half times the value of the second-highest lot – was Samarmeteors’ son of Extreme Choice. Newgate Farm had to content themselves with being underbidders on the son of their hot stallion, who boasts an 11.6 per cent stakes-winners-to-runners ratio.
“We’re delighted to get him,” Yulong CEO Sam Fairgray told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“He’s a December foal, and that’s why Baramul have given him that extra time to grow and develop before they offered him at a sale.
“He’s from a very good family that’s produced a Golden Slipper winner, and a Magic Millions winner. It’s a very nice family and he’s by Extreme Choice. We’ve had a good run with him this year, with Devil Knight winning the Blue Diamond.
“It’s good to have the opportunity with a colt like that to see how he goes on the track, and hopefully he ends up in our stallion barn.”
Baramul’s racing manager Luke McDonald said the farm’s four Extreme Choice yearlings at the sale sprung from a move to access the highly popular but famously sub-fertile stallion in any way possible.
“Gerry [Harvey] and I sat down one day and were discussing Extreme Choice. He’s obviously an exceptional sire, and we wanted to get involved, but the only way to get involved was to send the mares to him late,” McDonald told ANZ.
“So we sent eight mares to him, and four got in-foal. Two were covered in January, and two were covered in March, and we got two foals in December and two in February.
“It’s an experiment we’ll probably do again. We got four fabulous physicals, and our pedigrees that we mated up with him seemed to work, so we were extremely happy.”
McDonald said the record-equalling colt “ticked every box”.
“Although he was a late foal, he didn’t look it,” he said. “He had a lot of presence, precocity, strength and bone and we’re excited to see what he does in the future.
“Obviously Gerry owns Magic Millions and we support Magic Millions heavily, and being a late foal this sale was really the only option in terms of timing.
“We had to let him grow into his frame in his own time. He just continued to improve every month, and with that little bit of extra time he matured, developed mentally and physically, and it was just perfect timing.
“He oozes quality. He walks out of his box and he knows he’s a good horse already. He’s got a lot of scope for a late foal. Just wait till he turns into a three-year-old you’ll see the best of him.”
The day’s second top yearling – Lot 1263 – was born on February 25. She’s out of the placed mare Queen Magdalene (More Than Ready), whose second dam was dual Group 2 winner Palatious (Semipalatinsk), the dam of Danelagh.
Danelagh not only won the Blue Diamond but threw 2006-07 Hong Kong Horse of the Year Vengeance Of Rain (Zabeel) and his fellow Group 1-winning full-sister Dizelle, the Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner who in turn became the dam of VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) heroine Pinot (Pierro).
“She’s an interesting horse,” McDonald said of the filly. “She’s very well balanced, with a good hindquarter, and she tracked through really well, but being a February foal she needed a little bit more time.
“She’s quite a precocious two-year-old shape, but being a late foal you’re going to have to give her extra time.”
With his three lots all sold, Extreme Choice was the day’s leading sire by average ($416,667) and aggregate ($1.25m).
Second by average (three or more lots sold) was Vinery Stud’s Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon), with three averaging $90,667. Second by gross was Newhaven Park’s Cool Aza Beel (Savabeel), with eight lots yielding $336,000.
Baramul was leading vendor by average ($126,208) and gross ($1,514,500) through 12 lots sold, while Yulong’s sole $850,000 purchase made them the day’s biggest buyer.