‘It’s a pretty special opportunity’
Quality hailed as Inglis Easter Sale catalogue is revealed
Winx’s (Street Cry) second foal will no doubt grab the main headline, but the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale is also shaping as a showcase for another superstar of the Australian thoroughbred scene – sire sensation Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt).
The catalogue for the sale trumped as the “best of the best” and the most important in the southern hemisphere is now out, with a high quality selection of 472 yearlings assembled, up from 421 last year, and down from a modern peak of 500 in 2024.
An expectant hush will befall Riverside’s auditorium when Winx’s colt by Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) goes under the hammer, though no one expects him to match the $10 million the wonder mare’s co-owner Debbie Kepitis paid in 2024 for her filly by Pierro (Lohnro), the as-yet unraced three-year-old Quinceanera.
But much interest, not to mention business, is certain to centre on the 11 lots by Newgate Farm’s Extreme Choice, in an auction that could mark his ascension into a bona fide sales superstar.
This year’s yearlings are the subfertile star’s first full crop after he entered the stratosphere of service fees at $275,000 following his stunning first few years of runners.
The 12-year-old, now boasting 11.6 per cent stakes winners to runners – and six individual elite-level victors of races as diverse as the Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) – is now the most expensive stallion in Australia, having completed his ninth book last spring at $330,000.
Already, the quality of this crop has been borne out at Magic Millions Gold Coast, where Extreme Choice had comfortably had the best average price among stallions, at $822,500 for eight lots sold, which included the equal sale-topping $2 million colt out of Hazlebrook (Hinchinbrook), sold by Kingstar Farm to Yulong.
And Inglis’s bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch believes the stallion’s entries this Easter reflect how Australia’s leading breeders clamoured to send some of the finest mares in the country to the stallion in the spring of 2023.
Not only does Hutch describe the Easter catalogue as the finest he’s seen in his seven years at Inglis, he says it contains “the best group of Extreme Choice yearlings ever to go to a sale”.
“The credentials of each of them are outstanding,” Hutch told ANZ News. “This is a proper group of horses by what is a generational stallion. His record is nothing short of extraordinary.
“It’s the first time his mare quality is commensurate, or close to commensurate, with his quality as a stallion.
“In the past he’s had early crop mares. But this crop, after a massive fee hike, you look at the mares who have yearlings by him and all of a sudden there’s far less guesswork required on the likelihood of one of these, or multiple of these yearlings, being really good.
“For people who want to go to a sale and give themselves the best chance of buying a high-class horse, Easter gives them that chance, but the fact there are 11 Extreme Choices with the credentials they have, only enhances that chance further.
“It’s a pretty special opportunity for both domestic buyers, and people internationally who may not yet be aware of the horse but need to become aware of him, because he’s a very special stallion.”
Ten of the 11 Extreme Choices will be offered in Newgate’s draft, including Lot 117, a filly out of Speak Fondly (Northern Meteor), a four-time black type victor whose racetrack highlight came when landing the Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) in 2015, and dam of Brisbane Listed winner Compelling Truth (I Am Invincible).
Lot 71 is a half-brother to Group 3-winning sprinter English Riviera (Deep Field) out of the stakes winning Second Time Lucky (Any Suggestion), while Lot 142 is a colt out of Group 3 victor Tempt Me Not (Strategic Maneuver).
Newgate also offers a filly from Cicatrix (Violence), dam of the Group 1-placed Mayfair (Fastnet Rock), while Lot 306 is out of another US mare in Fashion Faux Pas (Flatter), whose year-older son Nations League (Snitzel) was a $1.7 million yearling.
Lot 26 is the lone Extreme Choice not from Newgate’s draft, in Peachester Lodge’s colt out of the Group 2-winning and Group 1-placed mare Pretty Brazen (Brazen Beau), whose dam Pretty Penny (Encosta De Lago) left five stakes winners.
Hutch’s assertions over the Extreme Choice selection were backed by Newgate’s managing director Henry Field.
“It’s the best compilation of Extreme Choice yearlings that have ever been at one sale, both genetically and physically,” Field told ANZ.
“This is his first full crop after he went to that higher fee of $275,000. He was also at that fee the previous year, but missed the first half of the season for varying reasons.
“We’ve got three colts in the draft that are really top class, plus a number of fillies who are as good a quality of filly as you’d see anywhere at a sale in the southern hemisphere this year.
“I think there’ll be a huge amount of interest in Extreme Choice not just from the local market but from the northern hemisphere as well. He’s certainly a stallion who’s captured everybody’s attention, given the uniqueness of him,
“He’ll certainly go down as one of the greatest stallions of all time in this country.”
This year’s Easter catalogue also features the penultimate crop of the late, great Snitzel, the most represented sire in the book with 43 yearlings, ahead of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) with 41, and reigning champion sire Zoustar (Northern Meteor) with 35.
The fact two-thirds of this Snitzel crop are female contributes to the catalogue containing slightly more fillies than colts.
“That’s very rare,” Hutch said. “It hasn’t happened at any time in recent history.
“But we’ve been given a very unique opportunity to sell a group of fillies that would compare favourably to any group of fillies that’s ever been offered for sale in Australia.
“In a current environment where access to quality bloodlines and breeding stock becomes ever more difficult, the sale represents a pretty rare opportunity for people to access a large volume of fillies that can be significant race fillies and broodmares of the future.
“There’s no more effective way of demonstrating the importance of fillies at Easter than by pointing out the dams of each of the past three winners of the Group 1 Golden Slipper were sourced as yearlings at Easter.”
Of course great interest will centre on one star Snitzel colt to be offered as Lot 187 in Coolmore’s draft on the first of the two days of the sale on March 29 and 30, whose dam is the great Winx.
Although Kepitis has said she’ll be content to see this one go, and while the underbidder on her $10 million filly Jon Stewart was noticeably absent at the Gold Coast, the colt will be odds-on to comfortably pass the seven-figure threshold.
“I saw him two weeks ago at Coolmore, and he looks really well,” Hutch said.“He’s a late November foal, so he’s on a slightly different trajectory to other horses at the sale, but he’d grown and strengthened quite a lot from a couple of months earlier.
“I don’t see him as having a precocious profile, but he moves nicely. I think he’ll just get better with time, and we’ll see the best of him when when he’s three.
“If he was any other yearling and you saw him, you’d go, ‘He’s quite a nice horse’.”
Among other catalogue highlights are Lot 451, Arrowfield Stud’s brother to Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner and current sire at that farm, Switzerland (Snitzel).
Lot 308 is Widden Stud’s brother to Zougotcha (Zoustar), Lot 195 is Yulong’s half-sister by Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice) to another three-time Group 1-winning mare in Sunshine In Paris (Invader), while Lot 324 is Sledmere Stud’s half-brother to Hong Kong hero Golden Sixty (Medaglia D’Oro).
Golden Slipper queen Fireburn (Rebel Dane) has a sister in the sale offered by Goodwood Farm as Lot 452, while Milburn Creek has a half-brother to star sprinting mare Magic Time (Hellbent), as Lot 153.
Siblings are on offer to a host of other elite-level winners including Private Eye (Al Maher), Celestial Legend (Dundeel), Hitotsu (Maurice), Cool Archie (Cool Aza Beel) and Estijaab (Snitzel).
Winx is just one of 51 Group 1-winning mares with progeny on offer.
Unsurprisingly, several other such lots come from the Yulong draft including two filly first foals by their stallion Alabama Express. Lot 318 is from three-time elite-level winner Forbidden Love (All Too Hard), while Lot 345’s dam is Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) heroine Icebath (Sacred Falls).
Yulong also offers Lot 424, a filly second foal from New Zealand’s 14-time Group 1 winner Melody Belle (Commands), by their Japanese sire Diatonic (Lord Kanaloa).
Three-time elite-level winner Sunlight (Zoustar) – bearer of last year’s record $3.2 million Gold Coast sale topping filly by Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) – will this year be represented at Easter, by Lot 128 – Coolmore’s filly by Justify (Scat Daddy).
Other Group 1-winning mares represented include Lighthouse (Mizzen Mast) with a filly by red–hot first season sire Anamoe, Montefilia (Kermadec) with an Alabama Express colt, Mizzy (Zoustar) with a Snitzel filly, Personal (Fastnet Rock) with an I Am Invincible filly, and Pippie (Written Tycoon) with an I Am Invincible colt.
The Easter catalogue features 80 lots that are either the progeny of or siblings to Group 1 winners, and 259 who are the progeny of or siblings to black–type victors.
Arrowfield are comfortably the most prominent vendors this Easter with 65 entries – up from 42 last year – ahead of Yulong’s 43, which is up from just 11 in 2025. Coolmore comes next with 37, ahead of Widden’s 28.
“It’s certainly the best Easter catalogue I’ve seen in my time at Inglis,” said Hutch, who arrived there in 2019.
“We feel we’ve consolidated a catalogue of real quality with incredible depth to it across a number of drafts. The support of a huge volume of vendors has been extremely strong.
“It felt during the spring that the response to each of our sales was very positive, more positive than I’ve experienced. I think the fact we ran good sales in 2025, despite some challenges in the market, has given vendors confidence that we can run good sales again.
“People recognise we work hard and endeavour to get the best results with every yearling. The reward for our effort in that respect is having a catalogue like this for Easter, and it’s just a case of us making sure we have as many buyers at the sale as possible.”
Some vendors have tipped Easter’s top end to return dazzling results this year, with the fact “only” 15 seven-figure lots sold at the Gold Coast indicating to some that many breeders were steering their finest yearlings towards Inglis’s feature sale.
Hutch, however, points out Easter had 25 seven-figure lots last year, after 13 sold at the Gold Coast, which could suggest the numbers might be roughly similar this time around.
But in any case, he believes there’ll be ample opportunity for major buyers to make plays on elite lots.
“For people looking to invest at the top end of the market at Easter, based on our observations at the start of the year, that part of the market might not be as daunting as people feel it may be,” Hutch said. “There’ll be a lot of opportunities to get involved.”
Still, also highlighting that “the number of million dollar lots shouldn’t be the measure of any sale”, Hutch was also keen to emphasise the attractiveness of the often-overlooked lower end of Easter.
“It’s also important to note that at the 2025 renewal of Easter, 104 yearlings could have been bought for $200,000 or less, highlighting the value on offer,” he said.
“Easter also possesses the highest stakes winners to runners ratio of any Australasian yearling sale and buyers are 31 per cent more likely to find a Group winner at Easter than the Magic Millions January Sale.”