Stay Inside to stand for introductory fee of $77,000
Golden Slipper-winning son of Extreme Choice already ‘ambushed’ by mare owners
Henry Field believes Stay Inside, the Golden Slipper-winning son of freakish young stallion Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt), is the best-credentialed first season sire Newgate Farm has stood since the Hunter Valley stallion operation’s inception early last decade.
The Newgate Farm studmaster yesterday announced that Stay Inside will stand for an introductory fee of $77,000 (all fees inc. GST), the same fee which was set for 2012 Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Pierro (Lonhro) when he retired to Coolmore in 2013, and breeders are already lining up to send mares to the Group 1-winning colt.
Field has experience in setting service fees for Slipper winners, installing Capitalist (Written Tycoon) at $55,000 upon his retirement to Newgate Farm in 2017, while Kia Ora Stud stood 2020 winner Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) at the same fee in his first season last year.
In the five years since Capitalist’s retirement, Australian yearling sale prices have surged, the season-opening Magic Millions sale on the Gold Coast increasing by 43 per cent from 2017 to this year’s record average of $292,748, a key indicator used by studmasters to help set service fees.
“Obviously, Stay Inside is a very, very rare article; he’s a dominant Golden Slipper winner and he is by a sire phenomenon in Extreme Choice,” Field told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“We are going to support him with a lot of our best mares; the shareholders have got a phenomenal band of mares which they’ve been collecting from all around the world this year, from Europe, America and obviously Australia.
“He has an extremely powerful, robust syndicate in him and from when it was announced that he was retiring two months ago, we have been ambushed with people determined to access his services.
“”In my opinion, we’ve never retired a horse to stud with better credentials than Stay Inside and we will be all chips in behind him to make sure he can be a sire at the farm for many years to come.”
Stay Inside, who was retired as the winner of three races from just six starts, immediately captured the attention of punters, pundits and studmasters after landing a betting plunge at his first start at Randwick in late January prior to his comprehensive win in the Pierro Plate (1100m) at his second start by four lengths.
It was then that Field and his partners of Matthew Sandblom and Gavin Murphy, as well as investors such as Go Bloodstock’s Sir Owen Glenn swooped on the exciting colt, reaching an agreement with connections to buy a stake in Stay Inside.
The colt, who was a luckless fourth behind Anamoe (Street Boss) in the Todman Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at his next start, would go on to win the Golden Slipper, triggering a significant “kicker” payment to his original owners.
At the time of the deal, the virtues of his sire Extreme Choice were already starting to be witnessed with another Newgate Farm-owned colt, subsequent Group 2 winner Tiger Of Malay, had won his first start in the Kirkham Plate (1000m) at Randwick in October and another colt by the sire Abseiler had won his first start at Flemington for his trainer Lloyd Kennewell.
Extreme Choice has well-documented fertility issues, siring just 75 live foals in his first two crops of racing age, and six stakes winners have emerged from his first crop.
Two-year-old filly She’s Extreme, who won the Magic Night Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) on March 12 and is nominated for Saturday’s Inglis Sires (Gr 1, 1400m) at Randwick, is Extreme Choice’s seventh stakes winner and the first from his second crop.
“Statistically, Stay Inside’s sire is off the richter scale as far as his potency as a stallion goes and clearly there’s only a limited edition number by the stallion in the market, so he is a really rare article, Stay Inside, and to top it all off he was a very dominant Golden Slipper winner,” Field said.
“He was favourite in the race, he was devastating in two of the lead-ups before the Slipper, putting them to the sword in a matter of strides, and he was quite dominant in what was rated a very strong Golden Slipper.
“He is the rarest of articles and the amount of interest and people have enquired since his retirement last month has been not unexpected, but certainly the demand for his services are ‘extreme’.
“The reality is, we respect and understand that our business has been built on the back of the best Australian breeders who have been great customers of ours and we’ll do everything in our power to accommodate them.”
Initially sold as a weanling on the Gold Coast by his breeder Sandblom for $60,000, Stay Inside was bought by trainers Richard and Michael Freedman and agent Rick Connolly for $200,000 at the following year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
He is the first foal out of winning mare Nothin Leica Storm (Anabaa) who is a half-sister to Fashion Rocks (Dehere), the dam of the stakes-placed pair Dinnigan (Snitzel) and Pouting Lips (Hinchinbrook).
Field was unperturbed by the fact he owned Stay Inside as a weanling and then was forced to rebuy him once the colt began his racing career after ratings expert Daniel O’Sullivan gave his tick of approval.
“Matthew Sandblom bred him at Kingstar, then I ended up buying a 50 per cent share in him as a weanling at the sales – he was a spectacular foal in the market – then we resold him into the yearling market,” Field said.
“The Freedmans bought him and we purchased equity in him after his second start and then paid a significant kicker payment for the Golden Slipper. The reality is, he’s a quality individual, but a horse is only worth what it’s worth on the day.
“When you have got a horse who Daniel O’Sullivan demanded that we buy into after his second start, James McDonald got off him and spoke so highly of his acceleration and his turn of foot … we took the view that he was the right horse to buy into.”
With an enviable stallion roster headlined by Capitalist, Deep Field (Northern Meteor), Extreme Choice and the current leading first season sire Russian Revolution (Snitzel), all whose 2022 service fees are yet to be revealed, Newgate Farm has added Stay Inside and juvenile stakes winners Tiger Of Malay and Profiteer (Capitalist), the latter pair standing for an introductory fee of $16,500.
Dual Group 1-winning sprinter Wild Ruler (Snitzel), another newcomer to the Newgate roster in 2022, is expected to have his service fee confirmed by the end of this week.