The immense regard in which Extreme Choice is held was in evidence on the final day of the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale May 27 when his successful mating with Miss Hellfire delivered a AU$2.05 million (US$1,455,500, AU$1=US$0.71) payday for Newgate Stud and its partners.
A trio of lots were offered by Newgate in foal to its freakish flagbearer, and two of the three mares duly surpassed the AU$1 million mark in a sure sign that the feverish demand for the progeny of Extreme Choice is showing no signs of abating.
The clear standout was Miss Hellfire, who was bred by SF Bloodstock at Newgate and returned to her birthplace when Henry Field swooped on the stakes-placed mare at last year's National Broodmare Sale. The AU$640,000 Newgate paid that day for Miss Hellfire proved a masterstroke, as the triple city winner realized more than three times that figure just 12 months later.
Shortly after the winning bid was placed online from China, Yulong's chief operating officer Sam Fairgray confirmed that Miss Hellfire would be joining the farm's ever-expanding broodmare band.
Fairgray described Miss Hellfire as "a beautiful mare", and pointed to the fact that her half sister Xtremetime (Extreme Choice) was a juvenile stakes winner as another factor in her favor.
"She is a very attractive mare, and Extreme Choice has already worked with the family, so hopefully she leaves a yearling that looks as good as herself," he said.
"I'm sure it will head for a yearling sale, and hopefully sell well. Obviously a lot of breeders want to try and get a mare in foal to him (Extreme Choice) so you've really got to be able to go to the peak to secure them, and her being such a good-looking mare was a key to it as well."
A short time later, Yulong again splashed the cash on a mare in foal to Extreme Choice when it acquired Amen Corner for AU$1.3 million again from the Newgate draft.
The mare's racing career was abbreviated by injury after just one start, but her dam Augusta Proud was an early sprinting star with six successive wins as a juvenile for her former trainer Leon McDonald.
She has passed that precocity onto her offspring—her first foal Thyme For Roses was a stakes winner—so the family held plenty of appeal even before Amen Corner's springtime mating with Extreme Choice.
"She's a good, strong mare and if she leaves one similar to herself it will be a very popular yearling," Fairgray commented.
"At this stage, the foals will come through the sales as yearlings. Once the foals are born, we'll assess what we do but, at this stage, I think we'll try and offer them back into the marketplace. Obviously we can put a reserve on them in the marketplace, and then see how we go."
The best-performed mare up for auction was unquestionably Startantes and she sold accordingly, as Widden Stud partnered with David Redvers Bloodstock to buy out their previous partners in the group 1 winner—who is carrying a foal by Darley dynamo Anamoe—with a bid of AU$1.4 million.
Bowditch hails strong metrics
Magic Millions' managing director Barry Bowditch was "extremely satisfied" as he reflected on the auction house's two day National Broodmare Sale, which concluded with some encouraging metrics.
After 16 mares in foal had commanded AU$500,000 or more on the final day of trading on the Gold Coast, Bowditch and his team were relieved that the market had been less volatile than they had initially feared.
"I'm extremely satisfied, to be honest," Bowditch said.
"Coming into today, I was wondering where we would land with the mares in foal, but I thought it was a genuine market again."
Bowditch pointed to an overall clearance rate of 80%, an average sale price of AU$220,000 (US$156,200) and a gross of AU$66 million (US$46.86 million) as reasons to be optimistic.
"I felt that they were really solid numbers," he said.
"It was pleasing that there was thirst all the way through to the end for the mares in foal. When a quality mare walked in, there was plenty of competition and a willingness to participate.
"A mare catalog is never apples with apples. (We had) less numbers and a different type of catalog compared to last year. So it is hard to compare, but the numbers we ended up with are above the expectations of what we thought we could achieve leading into the sale."
