Colt by ‘statistical outlier’ Extreme Choice makes $1.4 million at Magics
Son of Newgate Farm’s star stallion headlines final day of Book 1 on the Gold Coast
A $1.4 million colt by Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) proved too irresistible for big-time international investor Yulong as the curtain came down on Book 1 of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale last night.
The start of the evening session was pushed back by an hour to 7pm due to the Magic Millions 3YO Guineas (RL, 1400m) being delayed by 70 minutes owing to a dramatic barrier incident involving unbeaten second favourite Sydney Bowler (Deep Field), who was scratched and required veterinary care.
Once it eventually got under way, it didn’t take long for the action to heat up with the opening lot, a Deep Field (Northern Meteor) colt, selling for $800,000 and, 20 minutes later, the night’s marquee horse – a Kingstar Farm-bred and sold son of Extreme Choice – was bought by Yulong, its most expensive purchase across the five days of action.
“We expected him to be up there somewhere [in price]. He was a much talked [about] horse that we identified fairly early. We saw him in December when we went through the Hunter Valley looking at yearlings and it is great to come away with him,” Yulong general manager Vin Cox said.
“He’s a beautiful colt out of a Shamardal mare who has already thrown a stakes winner and we’re delighted to get him.”
Raised at Matthew Sandblom’s private Hunter Valley breeding operation Kingstar Farm near Denman, the colt by the Newgate Farm-based sire is the stud’s second seven-figure yearling sold at the Magic Millions in as many years – and both are by Extreme Choice.
This year’s Kingstar stand-out, catalogued as Lot 942, is a half-brother to the former Mick Price and Mick Kent Jnr-trained Vain Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) winner Our Playboy (Sebring) and the fifth living foal out of the unraced mare, Mischief Night (Shamardal).
A half-sister to All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m)–winning sire Pierata (Pierro), who now stands at Yulong in Victoria, as well as Group 3 winner Ashokan (More Than Ready), Mischief Night was bought by Sandblom at the 2019 Magic Millions National Sale for $200,000 from the Widden Stud draft.
Cox bought talented Extreme Choice colt Parkour – a race morning scratching from yesterday’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) – for $600,000 at last year’s sale for his former employer Sheikh Mohammed and a year on he was happy to pay more than double for one on behalf of his new boss, Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng.
“He’s probably not as big as Parkour. Parkour was a very big yearling, but he’s a chestnut like Parkour and there’s a lot of similarities with him,” Cox said.
“This horse has made a lot more money than Parkour but that is on the back of continued success of the stallion.”
Zhang is playing the same game as the other major colts funds, aiming to add to the size and depth of Yulong’s stallion roster and the feats of Extreme Choice can’t be ignored.
“[If you] land the right colt and it improves business. If we can hit on the right colt by the right stallion it moves the needle from a business perspective,” Cox said.
“When you look at his [Extreme Choice’s] numbers it is staggering. He’s an outlier in terms of his statistics and in terms of what he’s done and what he’s achieved, realistically and anyone would admit is a low base, is wonderful.
“They all seem to gallop and we’re glad to get a colt that is bred by him and looks like him.”
Last night’s closing Book 1 trade officially brought an end to the sustained growth enjoyed by Magic Millions at its January sale, but in the context of the sales season ahead it’s far from panic stations.
That’s the view of managing director Barry Bowditch as he started to assess the five days of trade, which generated a considerable $223.5 million in turnover, down marginally year-on-year. The clearance rate was 86 per cent.
“I’m incredibly pleased with how it came together. We’ll reflect on this sale as a great sale as the year goes on,” Bowditch said.
“Right now we are a tick over two per cent under last year and that is pleasing considering things aren’t easy out there for everyone.
“We did have an increase in million-dollar lots – 23 million-dollar lots, which is the most we’ve ever had here.
“To have an average of around $280,000, that is the third highest we’ve ever had and it was the last two years that beat that.”
Magic Millions’ two-day Book 2 January sale starts tomorrow.
Wootton Bassett show rolls on
Coolmore’s unique shuttler Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) also rounded out his progeny’s sought after Magic Millions with a Cressfield-bred filly with a deep black-type pedigree making $600,000.
Bought by Ciaron Maher, who featured on the buyers’ sheet 31 times, the filly will race in the well-known colours of Melbourne-based businessmen Ozzie Kheir and John O’Neill.
Owners of the Maher and David Eustace-trained 2022 Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Coolangatta (Written Tycoon), Kheir and O’Neill and their racing partners finished their Gold Coast spending spree by purchasing the second and final foal out of the unraced Misstook (Fastnet Rock).
Maher also trains the filly’s half-sister Overtook (Deep Field) who was retained to race by Cressfield’s Bruce Neill.
“Ozzie Kheir and I and our group of owners were pretty keen to get fast running two-year-olds and that is what we looked at in the sale. We’ve had a bit of luck as we’ve bought half a dozen or so.”
Misstook is a sister to Group 3 winner and multiple Group 1-placed mare Missrock and another stakes-winning mare in the Grahame Begg-trained Passive Aggressive.
Mistook died in November 2022 about three months after the Lot 966-catalogued Wootton Bassett filly was born.
A daughter of champion mare Avantage (Fastnet Rock) by Wootton Bassett topped the Magic Millions sale when bought by David Ellis for $2.1 million earlier the week, while overall his progeny grossed $14.9 million for 32 lots sold at an average of $465,625.
Hong Kong Jockey Club adds to Deep Field portfolio
Any Deep Field colt offered in a sales ring is bound to garner a significant amount of attention from Hong Kong buyers and so it proved last night when the Jockey Club went head-to-head with agent Andrew Williams for the Silverdale Farm-consigned session-opening colt.
After a spirited bidding battle, it was Boomer Bloodstock’s Craig Rounsefell, the Jockey Club’s southern hemisphere agent, who won the day, with the gavel eventually falling in his favour at $800,000.
The Jockey Club finished the sale with six colts to their name and last night’s was the third purchased from the penultimate crop of the now pensioned Newgate Farm stallion, whose stud career was brought to a premature end due to fertility issues.
“There’s obviously not too many left of these and with the physical, he was just bang on,” Rounsefell said.
“We had to wait all week for him – we’ve already bought two of them – and he was up there with the best colts here for us that suited Hong Kong.
“[He’s got a] super temperament, the farm that he’s come off has already produced some really top horses in the last few years out of nice, young, fast Danehill-line mares.
“For us, he was tailor-made.”
The September-born colt is the first foal out of the stakes-placed two-time winner Merited (Fastnet Rock), herself a daughter of New Zealand Group 2 winner Jeu De Cartes (Stravinsky), the half-sister to Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Nom Du Jeu (Montjeu).
“We’ve got three Deep Fields going up for the Hong Kong International Sale in March and some of them we bought here [last year],” Rounsefell said.
“Tim Boland, who prepares them at Limitless Lodge, loves them. He just loves their temperament, how sound they are and their speed.
“He’s obviously a target stallion for us and there’s not many of them left, so when the right one like him steps up you’ve got to take advantage of it.”
Deep Field has had 77 individual runners in Hong Kong for 39 individual winners of 113 races, headed by Group 1 winner Sky Field.
Hedge takes shine to Exceed And Excel colt
Agent Suman Hedge is a key member of the Rosemont Alliance colts decision-making group, but when it came to buying a son of Exceed And Excel (Danehill) from the Victorian farm last night, he kept his cards close to his chest.
When Rosemont principal Anthony Mithen and bloodstock manager Ryan McEvoy returned to their table, where Melbourne-based Hedge was also sitting, they had a look of bemusement on their faces having sold the youngster to their ally for $650,000.
“I don’t think they even knew. They came back and we’re quite surprised it was me,” Hedge said.
“I think sometimes when you have that feeling, you’ve got an intuition that that’s the horse you really want to get.
“The first time I saw him my jaw dropped. I really wanted him, so I’m really happy to get him.”
Catalogued as Lot 962, the Rosemont Stud-consigned yearling is a half-brother to the Jason Warren-trained Treasurway (Starspangledbanner), a Group 3-winning two-year-old last season.
The son of Exceed And Excel is the third foal out of four-time winner Miss Toorak Flyer (Toorak Toff), who was successful at metropolitan level in both Melbourne and Sydney.
Given his links to Rosemont, Hedge is familiar with the family and said Miss Toorak Flyer’s two-year-old filly by Exceedance (Exceed And Excel), who was retained by the Victorian operation, has shown early promise. The filly is named Flyer and is training with Jason Warren.
“I thought he was just an absolutely outstanding horse. He had just incredible athleticism and quality, he’s from a really good family and it’s a really developing family,” Hedge said.
“There’s already a stakes horse there, there’s another unraced that looks very, very promising. So, for me, it was a real priority to try and buy this horse and I was really happy to get him.”
The Rosemont Alliance signed for nine yearlings throughout the week, many of them in partnership with various trainers, while Hedge signed for three horses outright for a total spend of $1.27 million and last night’s colt was the most expensive of the trio.
“It’s been OK for me. I’ve tried to skirt around the edges and buy horses that I thought they [main players] may not be on,” he said.
“We’ve been able to pick up some really nice horses. I got a beautiful Farnan filly. I got this nice colt and got some other nice colts as well, so I’m very happy.”