Cover image courtesy of The Image is Everything
The magic of Kingstar Farm born and bred Devil Night’s (Extreme Choice) G1 Blue Diamond Stakes victory on Saturday is not lost on Adam Cook, who manages the blossoming stud for owner Matthew Sandblom.
Producing a G1 Golden Slipper Stakes winner and a Blue Diamond winner - particularly when both are by the same fertility-troubled stallion - on a farm that is less than a decade old is no mean feat.
“We've only been going for literally nine years and one week,” Cook told The Thoroughbred Report on Sunday.
It’s been a rollercoaster ride for a farm that’s been built from the ground up in that time, and is a testament to what happens when you set the standards high and ensure they are always met.
Perfect from the start
“He was a very nice foal,” Cook reflecting on the first time he saw the chestnut colt in the foaling yards at Kingstar, the colt who would later be sold for $1.4 million to Yulong Investments and named Devil Night.
“He never had any problems. No leg problems, no x-ray problems. He was just one of those perfect foals who grew perfectly, and obviously, that was reflected in the price.”
“He (Devil Night) never had any problems. No leg problems, no x-ray problems. He was just one of those perfect foals who grew perfectly, and obviously that was reflected in the price.” - Adam Cook
Competition was stiff for the son of Mischief Night (Shamardal {USA}) at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, before he was taken home by the rapidly growing Victorian operation. It was a fantastic result for a mating that transpired just a few short months after Stay Inside handed his sire a win in the Golden Slipper.
“Extreme Choice had, at that point, already proven himself a good stallion,” Cook said.
By the time the breeding season was half over in 2021, the chestnut son of Not A Single Doubt had an incredible six stakes winners - future sire Tiger Of Malay hot on Group 1-winning Stay Inside’s heels with two Group wins - from a debut crop of just 48 foals. “We had to upgrade our mares and, at that point in time, she was one of our best mares. Physically and pedigree-wise, it was a good match.”
Although unraced herself, Mischief Night had already proven herself a solid mare in the broodmare barn, having produced dual Group 3 winner Our Playboy (Sebring) who won the G3 Winx Guineas by a defiant 5.8l. Her pedigree is more than appealing, as she is out of G3 Millie Fox Stakes winner November Flight (Flying Spur), making her a half-sister to Yulong’s young stallion on the rise Pierata and G3 Skyline Stakes winner Ashokan (More Than Ready {USA}).
She was a perfect match for Extreme Choice in his fifth season, where his fee was FOA and heavily restricted to shareholders.
Matthew Sandblom and Adam Cook | Image courtesy of Kingstar Farm
With Sandblom a co-owner in Newgate and shareholder in the Blue Diamond-winning stallion, it certainly made it easier to line mares up for him - particularly for a stallion whose average fertility over the last seven seasons currently sits at 45.7 per cent.
Still, Cook admits it can be a “struggle” to repeat the magic.
“We tried it with Nothin Leica Storm (dam of Stay Inside) and it just didn’t happen,” he said. “But when everything works out with him, you get bloody good results.”
As for Mischief Night, she delivered a three-quarter-brother to Devil Night by Stay Inside in the spring.
“We’re definitely insuring the mare and foal straight away,” Cook said. “The three-quarter-brother is a very similar physical to him (Devil Night). Unfortunately she missed to Extreme Choice late in the season, but you can guess where she’s going first up next season.”
Adding a Diamond to the Slipper
A Slipper winner, a G1 VRC Oaks winner, a G1 Melbourne Cup winner - and now a Blue Diamond, all from 115 foals to race. Those achievements alone would be impressive without the limited numbers.
Grandsire Redoute’s Choice managed siring winners of the two juvenile races and the Oaks more than once, but no Melbourne Cup, as did great-grandsire Danehill (USA). Sir Tristram (Ire) managed three out of four, but no Diamond.
And almost certainly, none achieved it in such a short time.
Cook had followed Devil Night’s progress intently and was feeling positive after the 2-year-old colt’s debut run in the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude (colts & geldings), where he loomed up to Field Of Play (Deep Field) - who would start in their next clash as the clear favourite - to only be beaten 0.46l.
“I was hopeful he could improve off the back of that,” he said. “And then he drew that barrier (two), I was feeling hopeful and confident that if he had improved, we would be a chance.”
Cook was on holiday near the coast when the race took place and sat out on the veranda to watch on an iPad, while his wife was inside. Devil Night started to move up the field - and Cook was glued to the screen.
“When it got to the last 100 metres, I was yelling at the screen, ‘hold on, hold on!’,” he recalled. Devil Night held the fast-finishing Tentyris (Street Boss {USA}) at bay to snatch victory in the $2 million feature. “My wife was watching inside and the television was a bit delayed, so I ran in and told her that we’ve won it.
“I rang Matthew (Sandblom) up immediately and when he picked up, I was shaking - I was teary - Matthew was over the moon.”
Just four short years since Stay Inside claimed New South Wales’ premier juvenile race, another graduate had taken out the Victorian headliner. When they bred Stay Inside, Kingstar had a broodmare band of around 60 mares. By the time Devil Night was born, the herd had doubled in size and quality to 120, with the number approaching 150 this year.
It’s small numbers when compared to some of the nation’s most prolific operations - and paired with a stallion with just 189 foals of racing age. Of his 14 stakes winners, Kingstar has bred three, including two of his five Group 1 winners.
“Obviously, we are sending the right cross of mare to him to win,” Cook said.
Rarified air
Also stamped with the star inside a crown brand, Stay Inside was another standout from the beginning. If Cook had his way, he would have been retained - but conceived off of a $22,000 service fee with serious doubts about the stallion’s fertility going forward, Sandblom was motivated to sell when made a good enough offer.
“I didn’t want to sell him because I loved him,” Cook said. “But Matthew was given an offer for half of him as a weanling, and then Newgate sold him as a yearling.”
Stay Inside sold for $60,000 at the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Weanling Sale to Newgate Bloodstock, with Sandblom staying in 50 per cent of the colt. The following January, he was a $200,000 purchase for astute judges Richard and Michael Freedman in conjunction with Rick Connolly Bloodstock, and the looming pandemic offered the theme for his name.
Stay Inside | Standing at Newgate Farm
After three crops on the ground and a fourth year of covers, the Newgate team eagerly awaited the first runners for a sire they truly believed in - and, of course, Stay Inside rewarded them, and the Kingstar team as well.
“I remember getting a text from Peter O’Brien,” Cook could still recall the message even four years later. As he remembers, it read: ‘Congratulations, to breed a Golden Slipper winner is the pinnacle of any breeding farm, and to do it with such a young farm, you’re obviously doing the right protocols and doing everything to a tee.’
It was an outstanding display of what Kingstar could achieve.
“Buyers could now say, ‘Well, obviously these guys are doing a very good job at the farm’,” Cook said. “‘They’re raising them right. They’re looking after them.’ And then they can buy in confidence.”
Cook received well wishes from across the country after Saturday’s big result, and Aquis’ Director Of Sales Jonathan Davies sent him a particularly special one.
It read: ‘Congratulations - a Diamond to add to your Slipper. That’s rarified air.’
‘Congratulations - a Diamond to add to your Slipper. That’s rarified air.’ - Jonathan Davies well wishes to Adam Cook on Saturday results
“It’s so hard to even get a 2-year-old winner,” Cook said. “To get these two juvenile Group 1 winners - it’s unbelievable.”
2026 to be Kingstar’s best year yet
“I’ve never changed anything (about my processes) from the day that Kingstar started,” Cook said. “Everything is meticulously done from the moment they are conceived until - even after the hammer falls - they leave on someone else’s truck.”
With that in mind, he is looking forward to seeing the 2024 crop of foals hit the yearling sales in 2026, touting them as the farm’s best product yet.
“2026 is going to be huge,” he said. “We have a very exciting line-up of yearlings. We have half-siblings to Lady Laguna and Stay Inside, to name a few.”
Emirate as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
The underbidder on Devil Night - and on exciting 3-year-old Emirate (Extreme Choice), also a graduate from Kingstar - was Henry Field himself, and Cook believes he might get his chance next year to take home a prime example of the Extreme Choice product.
“He’ll (Field) get a chance at Magic Millions next year,” Cook said. “We have a full brother to (Group 3-winning filly) Wollombi that we’re taking to Magics, and he is physically our best Extreme Choice colt that we have prepared. I don’t think there’s been an Extreme Choice colt of his calibre that’s a full relation to a Group horse.”
And given the calibre of horse that Extreme Choice already turns out, he will no doubt be a popular colt.
