Crabtree revels in Champagne success with Extreme yearling buy
Renowned breeder celebrates Group 1 victory with filly bought at Inglis Easter sale
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 ever purchased one horse at a yearling sale under his Dorrington Farm banner, that being a Fastnet Rock (Danehill) filly for $220,000 in 2016. Named Catchy, she would the next year go on to win the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in his famed red and white chequered silks.
And on Saturday, Crabtree added another Group 1 winner to his yearling buying resume as She’s Extreme (Extreme Choice) led from pillar to post to land the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at Randwick.
A $275,000 buy for Anthony Cummings at last year’s Inglis Easter sale, Crabtree shortly after made his play to acquire 50 per cent of the daughter of Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt), 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 (Rebel Dane) a history-making Triple Crown success, with the Gary Portelli-trained filly having won the Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) before beating She’s Extreme in the Inglis Sires’ (Gr 1, 1400m) 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, and 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.
“I think this is the purest race of the carnival. The 1600 metres here, it’s where your horses are announcing to you that they can step up to more Classic distances but still compete at the higher end of the sprints.
“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 two-year-old in the country.”
She’s Extreme is out of the So Secret (Danetime) mare Keysbrook, a $1,750 yearling who went on to place second in the WA Derby (Gr 2, 2400m), recording a victory at 2100 metres.
Her granddam, Interlagos, is by English Derby (Gr 1, 1m 4f) winner Quest For Fame (Rainbow Quest), with Keysbrook a half-sister to Wyong Listed winner Brasileira (Commands).
“I don’t think she (She’s Extreme) will win at 1200 metres again. I think she’ll be 1400 to 2000 (metres),” 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.
“It’s the best of both worlds when you put a sprinting pedigree of Extreme Choice over a staying pedigree and it works. It could have easily not worked, but she has genuine speed and that’s why I was so confident leading into the race on Saturday.”
She’s Extreme is the third produce for Keysbrook, who last year was bought by Randwick Bloodstock Agency for $60,000 out of the Inglis Digital June (Late) Sale.
And it’s 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 $32,500.
The filly also furthers the extraordinary start to the stud career of Extreme Choice, who is operating at an 18.2 per cent stakes winners-to-runners ratio with his progeny, and added another Group winner through victory for Espiona in the JHB Carr Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) on the same card.
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 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.
“I rang Mick for his advice because I respect his opinion and he said, ‘I was the underbidder, and it’s fair to say I thought she was pretty good’. And that was a ringing endorsement for me.”
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 (Invincible Spirit), Zoustar (Northern Meteor) and Too Darn Hot (Dubawi), missed to the stallion, who also won the Blue Diamond.
However, it leaves Crabtree more inclined to utilise his Golden Slipper-winning son Stay Inside, who presents for his first season at Newgate Farm at a fee of $77,000 (inc GST).
“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 any more frequently.
“I breed them pretty well. It will just be an occasional foray for me!”