Chairman’s lands Extreme breeding proposition
Champagne and Oaks-winning daughter of Extreme Choice to be sold at Inglis sale
Multiple Group 1 winner She’s Extreme, a mare with a rare race record by an equally scarce but ultimately potent sire Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt), will be offered for sale at next year’s Inglis Chairman’s Sale.
Inglis gained an early vote of confidence for its elite breeding stock sale by securing the Anthony Cummings-trained Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) winner as a significant Chairman’s drawcard.
The Chairman’s Sale, which this year was topped by Group 1 winner Nimalee (So You Think), who was bought by Colm Santry Bloodstock and Coolmore Australia for $3.6 million, will be held at Inglis’ Riverside Stables in Sydney on Thursday, May 9.
She’s Extreme has not raced since her VRC Oaks victory in November 2022 and yesterday it was confirmed that her 11-start career had come to an end, bringing an end to a racing career that also included a victory in the Magic Night Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m), a second to subsequent Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Fireburn (Rebel Dane) in the Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) and ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) all as a two-year-old.
A tendon injury curtailed the four-year-old’s career and the uniqueness of a mare of her quality is highlighted by the fact she is one of just 11 fillies in Australia in the past 20 years to win a Group 1 at two and three, which has her matching the deeds of high-class broodmares Miss Finland (Redoute’s Choice), who produced Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Stay With Me (Street Cry), Yankee Rose (All American), dam of Japanese Champion Liberty Island (Duramente) and Samaready (More Than Ready), the mother of last season’s Golden Slipper winner Shinzo (Snitzel).
Managing owner Robert Crabtree owns 50 per cent of She’s Extreme, a $275,000 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale purchase by Cummings in 2021, having chased stock by the burgeoning Extreme Choice after being unable to get a mare in foal to the sub-fertile Newgate Farm sire.
Dorrington Farm’s Crabtree, who sold the Cummings-trained Group 2 winner Mizzy (Zoustar) at Magic Millions in 2021, revealed a thorough rehabilitation process had been undertaken with She’s Extreme in order to get her back to the races but in the end connections decided “she doesn’t have that much to prove and it wasn’t worth the risk”.
One of three Group 1 winners for Extreme Choice and one of two stakes winners to so far emerge from his second crop of just 29 foals, she is a daughter of the multiple Western Australian stakes-placed mare Keysbrook (So Secret), herself a half-sister to the Mona Lisa Stakes (Listed, 1350m) winner Brasileira (Commands).
“Regardless of her breeding, as good as it is, she is just a beautiful horse. She has got a magnificent girth and she stands over quite a lot of ground,” Crabtree told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“She has a fantastic rear end, a wonderful shoulder, great depth, she’s a beautiful specimen with a wonderful temperament.”
Newgate Farm will consign She’s Extreme, who was also placed in the Furious Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at three.
“She is by a stallion who is nothing short of a statistical freak, so she is going to be one of the finest mares offered anywhere in the world in 2024,” Newgate managing director Henry Field said.
“From approximately 81 runners, he’s had a Golden Slipper winner, three sons at stud and two females of the calibre of She’s Extreme and Espiona, he’s a phenomenal stallion and she is a rare horse in this day and age to be a Group 1-winning two-year-old and train on to win an Oaks.
“They are few and far between and she’s certainly going to be a jewel in the market. She is a very special mare.”
Competition from the respective auction houses Inglis and Magic Millions for the elite fillies and mares next May will be intense, with an increasing number either sold online or privately in recent weeks when in years gone by their owners would have waited for the Chairman’s or National Broodmare sales.
Three-time Group 1 winner Duais (Shamus Award) was sold privately to Yulong by the owners of the Edward Cummings-trained six-year-old after her Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) fourth.
She subsequently finished runner-up in the Champions Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at Flemington on November 11.
Imperatriz (I Am Invincible) would be top of the tree, but Te Akau Racing’s David Ellis has been fiercely loyal to New Zealand Bloodstock, selling Avantage (Fastnet Rock) for NZ$4.1 million through Gavelhouse in 2021, and in any case it is likely trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson would race the mare on as a six-year-old.
Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch was delighted to have an early Chairman’s Sale pin-up mare.
“The Chairman’s Sale is such a special evening which the market has recognised and now embraced to a phenomenal extent, particularly in the past few years and the presence of She’s Extreme will ensure the 2024 renewal will mean the momentum of the sale will continue to build,’’ Hutch said.
“We have offered many top-class fillies and mares in the relatively short history of the sale, but She’s Extreme will be arguably the most talented breeding prospect that we will have ever offered through the Chairman’s Sale.
“The engagement in the Chairman’s Sale from all the major local investors and an ever increasing number of significant international investors has been awesome and is only going to continue to grow.
“It is a sale inked into the calendars of anyone who is serious about investing in the very best Australasian breeding stock.”
Field has no doubt connections of She’s Extreme have made the right call to wait to sell her at a live auction next May.
“I totally understand that there are mares sold online and why people sell them. It’s timing, cash flow, etc, but for the really elite mares there’s no question that a physical auction is the best way to market them,” Field said.
“They’re hugely valuable assets and I feel we’ve built the reputation for selling the best quality breeding stock and doing it with the highest level of integrity.
“Of the 20 biggest mare buyers on the planet, we have communication with each and every one of them and that holds us in good stead to manage these very important assets.
“Excluding dispersal sales, in the past ten years, Newgate has sold more than double the amount of seven-figure mares than any other farm.”