Extreme Choice colt plays $3 million starring role at the Inglis Easter sale
The thrilling appeal of Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) and the resilience of the Inglis Easter yearling market were on show on opening day at Riverside, with Newgate Stud’s star stallion holding the top and equal-second lots spearheaded by a $3 million colt.
Before the sale, Inglis officials restrained their predictions due to uncertainty stemming from the ongoing war in Iran and its economic impacts, such as downward pressure on global stock markets and the opposite on fuel prices.
And while many rated the catalogue as the finest they had seen at Easter, an even and deep spread of quality – combined with events in the Middle East – led to doubts last year’s top price of $3 million could be matched.
Within less than an hour those doubts were erased when Coolmore’s Tom Magnier out-duelled Yulong in a tense bidding war to emerge with Lot 26, Lime Country Thoroughbreds’ powerful bay colt by Extreme Choice out of dual Group winner Pretty Brazen (Brazen Beau).
Later, trainer Clinton McDonald and Shane McGrath Bloodstock paid $1.8m for Lot 117, Newgate’s filly by the same sire out of Group 1 winner Speak Fondly (Northern Meteor).
That ranked equal second on the day alongside Lot 126, Widden Stud’s Zoustar (Northern Meteor) filly out of Group 2 winner Summer Sham (Not A Single Doubt) who’s a sister to elite-winning sprinter and now Rosemont Stud-based sire Schwarz. She was bought by Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock, on behalf of Jonathan Munz’s GSA Bloodstock.
It came in an opening session which, although several markers were down on last year, left Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch “delighted”, given his pre-sale jitters due to events in the Middle East.
Soon after the close of business, the average was $452,603, down 7.4 per cent at the same stage last year, albeit with 17 more lots sold (146). The gross stood at $66,080,000, up 4.5 per cent, while the median dropped 6.6 per cent to $350,000. The clearance rate was down three points at 76 per cent.
In a sign of the spread of quality, the day’s eight seven figure lots came from six different vendors.
And in a hint of the strength and breadth of the buying bench, they involved seven different purchasers.
“It’s hard not to be buoyed by the outcome of today,” Hutch told reporters. “It’s a promising start to the sale.
“I was apprehensive ahead of the sale. But ultimately it’s played out that people wanted to buy nice horses and pursue them with real vigour. We get to the end of the day with a set of figures which, if you’d offered them to me at the start, I’d have bitten your hand off for.
“The gross is up, the clearance is … fractionally behind last year. We offered more horses so I think we were prepared for that.
By a fluke of the catalogue, Hutch believes bigger and better should be expected on Monday. That was hinted at by the fact the $3m colt was the usually big-spending Magnier’s only purchase of the day.
“I would expect people to have a longer list for tomorrow than they would have had for today. There’s plenty of nice horses tomorrow,” said Hutch, while reminding buyers there were still lower budget buys to be had.
“There’ll be lots of people shopping in that zero to $300,000 bracket.
“There are plenty of horses falling into that part of the market. It’s not as if it’s impossible to buy a horse.”
Expectations were high for Extreme Choice at this sale, with his ten lots hatched from his first season after entering the service fee stratosphere, at $275,000 (inc GST). Only three of his offerings were on sale on Sunday, but his two seven-figure lots helped him top the averages among sires, with three or more lots sold, at $1.9m.
Extreme Choice’s one lot that didn’t make seven figures made $900,000 in Lot 71, a Newgate colt from New Zealand Listed winner Second Time Lucky (Any Suggestion), bought by the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds axis.
The Extreme Choice effect was well portrayed in Magnier’s $3m purchase, bred by Peachester Lodge’s Graham and Linda Huddy, and a new personal best price for Greg and Jo Griffin’s Lime Country Thoroughbreds.
Dam Pretty Brazen has had three yearlings sold. First foal Top Maestro (Capitalist) fetched $220,000 (and has had two unplaced runs in Hong Kong as Top Maestro). Her second foal, a filly by Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), made $40,000 as a yearling. And now her third one, by Extreme Choice, has made $3m.
“Obviously, Extreme Choice is doing very well, but the long and short of it is the colt was a standout all week,” said Magnier, who’ll send the session-topper to Chris Waller.
“He’s a very good mover, loads of quality, very good looking, a lovely light stepper. It wasn’t an Einstein job. We’re delighted to get him and we’ll need a bit of luck.”
The result left Lime Country’s Jo Griffin with tears of joy. In the ten years since she and husband Greg crossed the Tasman, their previous best sale was their $1.6m son of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) who was the top colt at Easter 2023. He’s now known as Imperial Force and is stakes-placed for Bjorn Baker.
“Greg and I looked at each other last night and I said, ‘I think it’s got a two in front of it’. And he said, ‘So do I’,” said Griffin, who was then “blown away” to see the ultimate price start with a three.
“Very rarely do I get emotional about it, but I guess when does that ever happen?
“We sold the highest priced colt two years ago and that was an amazing thing for us at the time. To sell a horse at this price – any time you sell a million dollar horse is special, but gee.”
With a fitting piece of symmetry to the sale in that Pretty Brazen was born at Coolmore, and his breeder Linda Huddy was also pleasantly stunned.
“I can’t hardly believe it, it will sink in eventually I guess but this is way beyond our wildest dreams,’’ she said. “I thought at $1.5 million we would have been happy but $3 million – it’s unbelievable.’’
Later on in the afternoon, McGrath and McDonald were ecstatic to secure a $1.8m Extreme Choice filly, the seventh foal of ATC Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Speak Fondly, who’s already produced a stakes winner in Compelling Truth (I Am Invincible).
“Like everybody else here, we’ve done our due diligence. We’ve gone around and looked at all the fillies and she was our pick of the sale. She’s sold accordingly,” said McGrath. “It’s a lot of money, but Extreme Choice is obviously a freak statistically.”
McGrath had tried to find “a common denominator” in sub-fertile Extreme Choice’s stakes winners – who currently number 18 from 144 starters at 12.5 per cent, and include six elite victors. He said Newgate’s Jim Carey had told him “all the real good Extreme Choices have all got a beautiful action”.
“And that’s what she had,” he said. “She’s an October foal, so I think there’s plenty of growth and maturity and, you know, an Extreme Choice – who knows what you have, but it’s a ticket in the lottery.
“We’ve got a really good bunch of owners … and fortunately they’re happy to back us and I hope this filly rewards us in spades.”
While $1.8m represents a sizeable outlay for McGrath and McDonald, the former had a cheeky message for Newgate’s managing director Henry Field.
“You can tell Henry we had a little bit more,” he smiled.
While Extreme Choice was the talk of the day, reigning champion sire Zoustar had more seven figure lots than any sire, with three of the eight, who were evenly split with four colts and four fillies.
Zoustar’s headliners were headed by the sister to Rosemont Stud sire Schwarz, bought by Hawthorne for Munz.
“She was our number one Zoustar and probably our number one filly at the sale. We’ve bought Zoustars here before who have been performing well for us and she was right up there,” said Hawthorne, an avowed fan of Zoustar’s home stud.
“Two years ago I bought four off Widden: Napoleonic, Beskar, and Price Tag are all stakes performers, and we’ve got another filly by Zoustar coming through who looks stakes class.
“We have a lot of luck shopping there, we like buying the breed, we keep going back to the well.”
Hawthorne, the day’s leading buyer with 11 lots for an outlay of $5.25m, admitted he was surprised “we’d have to go that high” for the Zoustar filly.
“My knees were knocking when we got up there, but full credit to the boss [Munz]. He kept going and we got her. I’m rapt,” he said.
Zoustar also had the day’s equal fifth top yearling in Lot 135, a colt out of dual Group winner Sword Of Light (New Approach) – the dam of the Listed-winning Beskar (Snitzel) – who was sold by Widden to Yulong and Waterhouse and Bott for $1.35m.
And Zoustar rounded out the seven figure yearlings with Lot 9, a half sister to highly-rated two-year-old Group 2 winner Paradoxium (Extreme Choice), who was offered by Steve Grant’s Silverdale Farm and bought by Yulong for $1.1m.
I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) also featured, with two lots among the top six. They helped Yarraman Park’s triple champion sire end the day as leading stallion by aggregate, with 16 lots fetching $11,230,000 and ranked second by averages ($702,000).
Lot 133 was his filly out of triple stakes winner Sweet Sherry (Bel Esprit), dam of another triple stakes victor in Eneeza (Exceed And Excel), who was sold by Silverdale to Sir Owen Glenn’s Go Bloodstock, trainer Michael Freedman and Andy Williams Bloodstock, for $1.7m.
“Sir Owen was keen to try to get some early types out of this sale, and she was certainly one of the ones we identified who fit that bill,” Freedman said.
“She just had a lot of physical presence about her, stood over a lot of ground, with a beautiful action, and she’s sensible.
“I do love Bel Esprit mares as well, and she’s had a good start, with a stakes winner as a first foal.”
I Am Invincible’s Lot 20 fetched $1.35m – a colt out of dual Group 1 winner Pippie (Written Tycoon), sold from Cressfield’s draft to the China Horse Club and Newgate.
“We loved him,” said Newgate’s Field. “He was nearly our favourite colt on the ground, certainly one of our top five. He’s a masculine, powerful colt out of a very fast mare, bred on a terrific farm.”
Rounding out the list of seven-figure yearlings was Milburn Creek’s Lot 171, a son of Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) and the second foal from Group 2 winner Victoria Quay (Dundeel), who sold to Ted Huglin and Clarke Bloodstock for $1.3m.
Arrowfield Stud ended the day as leading vendor by aggregate, with 25 lots realising $9.38m, well clear of second-placed Newgate’s seven lots for $5.44m.
Lime Country’s windfall made it top vendor by average, with five lots at $822,000, ahead of Silverdale’s six lots at $813,333.
Sale statistics – Day 1*
2026 2025
Catalogued 210 180
Offered 191 163
Sold 146 (76%) 129 (79%)
Aggregate $66,080,000 (+4.5%) $63,055,000
Average $452,603 (-7.4%) $488,798
Median $350,000 (-6.6%) $375,000
Top Lot $3 million $3 million
* stats from 2025 are taken at the close of trade on day 1