The extraordinary story of Extreme Choice continued its merry way this week, with Thursday’s announcement of the 2022 Newgate stallion roster. The superstar sire, who heads a 13-strong roster for the spring upcoming, will stand at $275,000 (inc GST).
It propels Extreme Choice, who stood for just $22,000 (inc GST) two years ago, as the highest announced fee and deservedly positioned amongst the elite stallions in Australia, but, according to Newgate’s General Manager, Henry Field, it’s simple economics.
Extreme Choice | Standing at Newgate
“We’ve had a huge amount of enquiry from people wanting to use him, and there’s only limited availability,” Field said. “Some of the shareholders will potentially sell their nominations too, so we had requests to set a fee.”
Last season, Newgate advertised Extreme Choice as ‘fee on application’ and, in the end, the horse covered only two outside mares from a book of 76.
“Given what he’s achieved, which is nothing short of extraordinary, we thought this was a fair fee for a horse that is the elite of the elite, and with a very limited supply of him on the market.”
The exclusive Choice
The story of Extreme Choice’s subfertility is a remarkable chapter in the modern industry. As a racehorse, the son of Not A Single Doubt was a G1 Blue Diamond S. winner that was sharp enough to also win the G1 Moir S. and G3 Chairman’s S.
Extreme Choice when racing | Standing at Newgate
From eight starts and four wins, Extreme Choice won close to $2 million in prizemoney and, while it was alarming that his first season at stud produced just 48 live foals from a book of 118, the results from that crop have been roof-raising.
“As a stallion, he’s achieving remarkable things from tiny opportunity,” Field said. “When a stallion has 38 runners, seven stakes winners and four Group 1 performers, plus two Group 1 winners of which one is a Golden Slipper winner, it’s bordering on freaky territory.
“He looks like he’s going to be one of the world’s elite stallions statistically, and there’s a massive oversupply of demand from people that simply want the best of the best.”
“As a stallion, he’s (Extreme Choice) achieving remarkable things from tiny opportunity... it’s bordering on freaky territory. He looks like he's going to be one of the world's elite stallions statistically.” - Henry Field
Last spring, Extreme Choice sired 57 foals. The year before it was 31 and, in his second crop (which followed his first crop of 48), his number was just 29. The figures are extremely low for a modern commercial stallion, but Extreme Choice has defied them.
“It’s distressing to have a horse of his calibre breed only very limited numbers of mares,” Field said. “We try to keep him to approximately one cover a day, just to give those mares the best possible chance of getting in foal. But we’re incredibly grateful to have such an amazing stallion on our roster, despite the difficulties.”
Managing Extreme Choice’s stud career is a precise task for Newgate Farm and, with a service fee of $275,000 (inc GST), the operation is looking to foal-share arrangements for its valuable asset.
Henry Field
“We’re very open to foal shares,” Field said. “In some ways we’d prefer to do them than pay nominations because we want to own his stock as much as we possibly can. We’ll only do them with very high-class mares, and the bottom line is that there is only a very limited number available.
“As word started to get around that his fee might be at that level, we had most of the smart guys in the game ring us up and try to get access to him, so the situation for him will be a combination of nominations and foal-shares, and the majority of those nominations will be shareholders supporting the horse.”
“We’re very open to foal shares. In some ways we’d prefer to do them than pay nominations because we want to own his (Extreme Choice's) stock as much as we possibly can. We’ll only do them with very high-class mares...” - Henry Field
As Field mentioned, a number of shareholder nominations will be sold before the spring.
In recent weeks, the first round of supplementary entries to the Inglis Chairman’s Sale included a breeding right to Extreme Choice, while Wednesday’s release of the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale catalogue featured a share to the stallion in the main book.
The stable soldiers
As Extreme Choice commands the highest of Newgate’s service fees this spring, and the highest in the short history of the operation overall, Capitalist was announced on Thursday with a fee unchanged at $99,000 (inc GST).
Capitalist | Standing at Newgate
Currently, the 8-year-old stallion sits atop the second-season sire' table in Australia by a long way on winners, with 50 as against his nearest rival, Shalaa (Ire), on 34. On earnings, Capitalist sits behind only Maurice (Jpn), whose dual Derby winner Hitotsu has put him comfortably ahead.
In every way, Capitalist has been a gang-buster sire for Newgate Farm, serving books of no less than 208 since he debuted at stud in 2017, and his overall winners in just two crops of racing age currently stand at 64 from 159 runners.
Alongside him, Deep Field is also unchanged in service fee at $88,000 (inc GST), and this pair are the stable soldiers of the Newgate brand.
Deep Field | Standing at Newgate
“Capitalist has had eight stakes winners and 19 stakes horses, which is a phenomenal number from a horse that’s only got 3-year-olds running,” Field said. “And Deep Field, year in, year out, just gets a lot of consistent winners and black-type horses. A horse like him, they’re so important for a stud farm to have. He’s a real staple stallion.”
“A horse like him (Deep Field), they’re so important for a stud farm to have. He’s a real staple stallion.” - Henry Field
Field said that Capitalist’s success, which has come thick and fast, must also be measured in his two very commercial sons going to stud this year. Both Captivant and Profiteer, the latter joining his sire at Newgate Farm, are high-profile sons at stud for Capitalist.
Profiteer will debut for Newgate at $16,500 (inc GST), as will the Extreme Choice colt Tiger Of Malay. This pair is two of four new horses on the roster, along with Stay Inside at $77,000 (inc GST) and Wild Ruler at $38,500 (inc GST).
The Russian
As Capitalist and Deep Field have remained unchanged, the rising 9-year-old, Russian Revolution, has spiked significantly, his fee going up from $44,000 (inc GST) last year to $71,500 (inc GST) this year.
Russian Revolution | Standing at Newgate
It’s not a surprising development given the success of the horse’s first crop this racing season, because from 23 runners to date, the stallion has had seven winners for 10 wins, among them the Group 2 winner Revolutionary Miss and the Group 3 winner Rise Of The Masses.
“He’s a very dominant first-season sire, and we’ve priced him very, very competitively,” Field said. “As a farm and as major shareholders, we wanted to play the long game, and just organically build their fees up. I think that we wanted to give breeders the opportunity to access a lot of these top-calibre, young, proven stallions at a commercial fee where they can make money.”
Field said that Russian Revolution, Capitalist and Deep Field were the best of the highly commercial speed sires in Australia, each of which was sought-after at stud and, in particular, by the colts’ syndicates in the sale ring.
Field added that it was important to him that breeders could get in at fees that would later allow them to make money.
“Breeders need to get a return,” the studmaster said. “That’s important to the longevity of our stallions at stud.”
The newbies
New sire Stay Inside was announced by Newgate some weeks ago at $77,000 (inc GST), and Field said that figure made absolute sense.
“When you’ve got a dominant Golden Slipper winner like him by a freak sire in Extreme Choice, you know you’re going to be run over by demand,” he said. “Stay Inside is fully booked at this stage, and we’ve kept a small number of openings for elite mares that come out of the Chairman's Sale or the Gold Coast next month, but certainly at this stage he’s as good as book-full.”
“Stay Inside is fully booked at this stage, and we’ve kept a small number of openings for elite mares that come out of the Chairman's Sale or the Gold Coast next month, but certainly at this stage he’s as good as book-full.” - Henry Field
Among the four new guns on the roster, Stay Inside is the most expensive by a considerable way. However, Field said that Wild Ruler, at $38,500 (inc GST), is going like the clappers.
“The market has gone gangbusters for Wild Ruler,” he said. “He’s that fast, Australian speed horse like Snitzel, and he profiles as similarly as Russian Revolution going to stud.
Gallery: Stallions standing at Newgate
“He’s one of the very few Australian speed horses, and possibly the only one actually, in that $30,000 to $50,000 price bracket in the Hunter Valley. He’s been absolutely run over with bookings.”
Field said that, equally, Tiger Of Malay and Profiteer had been put up with waiting lists.
“I love having new stallions,” he added. “We’re in a really unique position here at Newgate where we have a strong hand of high-class and young, proven sires with a good number of freshman sires, and we're getting Golden Slipper horses and Group performers from them all. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of.”
Just the beginning
The 2022 Newgate roster boasts 13 sires.
Both Menari and Winning Rupert have relocated to new destinations and, of the remaining sires returning, North Pacific’s fee has remained unchanged at $22,000 (inc GST), as has Tassort at $11,000 (inc GST).
Brutal (NZ) has dropped slightly from $27,500 (inc GST) to $22,000 (inc GST), and the Group 1-winning Flying Artie has also eased from $33,000 (inc GST) to $22,000 (inc GST). Whipping them in is Cosmic Force, who drops from $16,500 (inc GST) to $11,000 (inc GST).
Gallery: Stallions on Newgate’s roster in 2022
Overall, it’s a remarkably young lineup. Deep Field, at 11 years old, is the oldest of the 13 stallions, and he isn’t an old horse.
“We’re only a young farm,” Field said. “You’ve got to remember that we only started standing stallions seven or eight years ago, so the fact that we’ve got such a good strike-rate of stallions making the grade in so short a time, it’s a real statement.
“To have this number of young, proven stallions that are making it long-term on our roster is one of the benchmarks for how we judge ourselves, and while a lot of the proven sires in this country are nearing the end of their lifespan at stud, ours are just at the start.”
