Extreme Choice reigns supreme at Newgate for $385,000

Cover image courtesy of Newgate Farm

Newgate Farm’s 15-strong roster will once again be headlined in 2026 by Extreme Choice, who lifts to match the record Australian service fee of $385,000 (inc GST) for his ninth season at stud.

Reflecting on the sales season and the performance of Newgate stallions on the track this year, whilst anticipating what is in store in the next 12 months for the roster, has led the team to keep most fees the same this coming season.

Table: Newgate Farm's service fees for 2026, includes GST

Still Extremely exciting

After an elite sales season where his progeny fetched up to $3 million and averaged $858,750, paired with what his offspring have been producing on the track, the fee increase for Extreme Choice is not unexpected. Newgate’s Director Of Bloodstock Bruce Slade remarked on the horse’s continued ability to deliver, despite his limited numbers.

“We keep thinking to ourselves how special he is, and he keeps producing it every season,” he said. “He has had another Group 1 winner this season with Apocalyptic, who has been one of the best 3-year-old fillies this year, and he has had three 2-year-old runners, two of them ran in the Slipper and both won key Slipper lead-up races as well.”

G3 Canonbury Stakes Hidrix and G2 Todman Stakes winner Paradoxium have flown the flag for their sire this autumn.

“Paradoxium has now been traded to Yulong for a large sum as a stallion prospect,” Slade said. “It’s incredible from limited numbers, and I think his success on the track has, for the first time, really come home to roost at the sales this year. He had a record-breaking colt and filly, and his average nearly doubled from last year.

“The market may not have been convinced 12 months ago, but now all the big players have been convinced that he is a special stallion.”

Extreme Choice’s son out of multiple Group winner Pretty Brazen (Brazen Beau) was the star at the recent Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale when selling for $3 million to Tom Magnier.

“In the last few seasons, he has started to get another level of mare,” Slade said. “In the past, breeders may have sent him a good mare, but they may not have been willing to risk missing out with one of their elite mares. Recently, that has shifted.

“Jim Carey and Jackson Beirs and everyone at Newgate have done a great job managing the horse in the shed and managing the mares he gets with the system they are using. That also has been giving breeders the confidence to use him for their topline mares.”

Extreme Choice will cover a select book again, as he has done in recent years, and is available this autumn on Northern Hemisphere time for select mares as well. Stakes-performed Sizzlefly (Sizzling) and Group winner-producing Hazlebrook (Hinchinbrook), both offered in foal to him, have just been announced as supplementaries to the Inglis Chairman’s Sale catalogue.

“That’s the most exciting thing,” said Slade. “When you look at the mares in his recent books, you know at the very least we are going to see some very, very lovely horses by him come out in the next few years.”

The best is yet to come

The rest of Newgate’s team of six proven sires will be remaining at the same, or very similar, fees for 2026, despite their records continuing to please the stud on the track.

Capitalist will again stand for $44,000 (inc GST), Russian Revolution will stand a second season at $33,000 (inc GST), and Cosmic Force and Brutal (NZ) will both remain at $16,500 (inc GST). Tassort will take a slight reduction from $38,500 (inc GST) to $33,000 (inc GST) for 2026.

Capitalist and Russian Revolution share two attributes with Extreme Choice aside from their living quarters; all have had another good season on the track, and all will turn 13 in the spring.

“They are the oldest horses on our roster, which is incredibly exciting, as their best crops are still to come through to race for them,” said Slade.

Capitalist is currently the leading sire by winners in both Australia and Hong Kong, and he is in the top 10 for earnings again. It has been a really big season for him with six stakes winners at all ages. He continues to do a great job, and at $44,000, he stands out from the crowd in the proven marketplace.”

Capitalist finished the last two seasons as ninth by earnings amongst Australian sires, and added a new juvenile stakes winner on Golden Slipper weekend with Rich On Bubbles in the Listed Valley Pearl Stakes. Of his 30 stakes winners to date, 16 struck as 2-year-olds.

“Russian Revolution has produced two new Group 1 winners this season, he has had the super exciting, unbeaten New Zealand 2-year-old Lara Antipova, and he is in the top 10 sires for winners in Australia for the first time.”

After an unbeaten four-race spree that concluded in the G1 Sistema Stakes, connections have signalled that Lara Antipova will likely cross the Tasman for a spring assault on Australian soil. She has been the flagbearer for her sire on one side of the Tasman, with Libertad lifting the G1 Winterbottom Stakes during the Perth carnival to take Russian Revolution’s elite winner total to three.

Brutal, Cosmic Force, and Tassort have been carving their own paths steadily, and the team also believe that the best is in store for the trio’s coming crops.

Gallery: Some of the proven sires standing at Newgate Farm

“They all have started out with lesser profiles, but they are all doing a really good job to hold their positions on our roster,” said Slade. “It’s a known phenomenon that quality and size of books tend to drop in the second, third, and fourth seasons, so you sometimes see a bit of a drop off in performance as well. All three have maintained where they are and all three covered their best books in the last two seasons. That is something to really look forward to.”

The tip of the iceberg

All four stallions with their first 2-year-olds on the track at present will also remain at the same fees in 2026. Stay Inside leads the quartet at $66,000 (inc GST), Wild Ruler at $27,500 (inc GST), and Profiteer and Tiger Of Malay will both again be available at $11,000 (inc GST).

“They are all doing a nice job, and this stage is just the tip of the iceberg for them,” Slade said. “We have been very fortunate with the support we have had from Australian breeders for all these horses, particularly Stay Inside. I don't think we've ever had a better set up young horse than him, and he is currently the leading first season sire by winners and joint leader by stakes winners in Australia. He is doing a great job.”

From just 11 starters on Australian soil, Stay Inside has sired four winners, including G3 Breeders’ Plate winner Incognito and G3 Kindergarten Stakes winner Blue Door. Over in New Zealand, Lassified landed a blow for him by taking out the Listed Wellesley Stakes earlier in the season.

Gallery: First season 2-year-old sires standing at Newgate Farm

“Wild Ruler is the sire of one of the best 2-year-olds this season in Stretan Ruler, and he is tied with Home Affairs for second place by winners so far,” Slade said. “He is doing a really good job, and Profiteer and Tiger Of Malay have both produced good colts and fillies already.

“What they do in the next 12 months will have a big impact. We have just seen the tip of the iceberg with their runners, they have plenty more to come for all four of them.”

Accessible prices for third season sires

Artorius, State Of Rest (Ire), and In The Congo were all represented by their first yearlings at the sales this year, and while Newgate wait to see what the trio can produce with their first 2-year-olds in the spring, they will all three at a fee of $22,000 (inc GST).

All three pleased the Newgate team with how they were received at the sales; In The Congo produced a $625,000 colt at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, sold to Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds, and a NZ$400,000 filly at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale, bought by David Ellis CNZM (BAFNZ). His first crop of yearlings averaged $118,436 at the sales, while State Of Rest produced an average of $87,784 and Artorius averaged $77,465.

“In The Congo has such a good looking family, being a three-quarter-brother to Autumn Glow,” Slade said. “She is a beautiful type, as he is himself. He has been really throwing that type into his stock - nice, square, fast looking, great moving sort of speed horses. Outside of Anamoe, he has been one of the best received first season sires this year, I think.

“His yearlings all went to great homes, as have Artorius’s. I think he could be a real smokie amongst the first season sires in the spring. There’s a lot of nice, athletic stock of his out there from good families.”

State Of Rest’s top lot of the sales season was sold at Inglis Easter, where Star Thoroughbreds and Vin Cox Bloodstock secured a son of his for $425,000 from the draft of Segenhoe Stud.

“We have seen what Ghaiyyath and The Autumn Sun and Castelvecchio have done, and how they can command strong commercial appeal in the marketplace,” Slade said. “State Of Rest is really set up to do the same. You aren’t going to expect many 2-year-olds from him, but you can expect to see some really lovely 3-year-olds.

“He has been really well supported, so timing-wise this year would be a great time to use him as when the resulting foal is born, you will have two, three, and 4-year-olds running around for you.”

Backing the newest generation

The youngest members of the Newgate roster will also stand for unchanged fees in their third seasons at stud; Ozzmosis remains at $44,000 (inc GST) and King’s Gambit stays at $22,000 (inc GST).

The Newgate team have been impressed and excited by the first foals from both sires, and have the confidence that both will have desirable yearlings in the ring next year.

“King’s Gambit was a highly talented racehorse, a Group 1 horse through and through on data, and he has had just awesome foals,” said Slade. “And Ozzmosis has been and remains a very straightforward horse to breed with. He was always going to give you quality and scope, and breeders know they can send him a short coupled, square mare and get a foal with that Zoustar quality. He has delivered that so far.

“I always loved the way Bjorn would talk about him, in regards to the science behind him. His recovery rate, his stride length, his acceleration - you could see on the monitors what a special athlete he is. Plus, he is a fourth generation Coolmore Stud Stakes winner from a great lineage of topline sires. Based on history and the setup he's had, he's a great chance to make it.”

From what he has observed in the market so far this year, Slade believes the play in 2026 will be to find value and quality amongst the stallions standing their second, third, and fourth seasons at stud.

“There isn’t many top horses retiring to stud this year and the spots with the elite will book out very quickly,” he said. “There are only so many spaces. You want to be in the top 3000 of the foal crop every year to give yourself the best opportunity at the sales, and these stallions with numbers coming through on the track and in the ring give you a real good crack at building value while you wait for your turn to sell.”