‘One of the rarest there’s ever been’ – The stat that gives Henry Field the confidence to stand Extreme Choice for an equal Australian record fee

At $330,000, Extreme Choice’s 2025 service fee is the same as his famous grandsire Redoute’s Choice at his peak. There are several very good reasons why Newgate’s Henry Field thinks he belongs in that territory.  

For Newgate’s Henry Field, there is one clear statistic which determines Extreme Choice as worthy of being the equal most expensive stallion in Australian history.

Newgate has announced lifted Extreme Choice’s 2025 service fee from $275,000 (inc GST) to $330,000 (inc GST), the same fee his legendary grandsire Redoute’s Choice stood at during his peak in 2007 and 2008.

Part of that pricing is undoubtedly the rarity factor, in that Extreme Choice’s fertility is closely managed, meaning the volume of outside mares is much less than it might otherwise be.

There is also the sense of currency, with Extreme Choice having become the first stallion ever to produce winners of the Melbourne Cup winner (Knight’s Choice) and Blue Diamond Stakes (Devil Night) in the same season.

Then there is the statistical similarity with his champion grandsire.

At the same point of his career, in 2008, Redoute’s Choice was tracking at 11.89 per cent stakes winners to runners. Extreme Choice is at 11.96 per cent. Extreme Choice’s Group 1 winners-to-runners rate (4.3 per cent) is also superior to Redoute’s Choice (3.7 per cent).

But the stat that gets Field most animated when it comes to talking about Newgate’s flagship sire concerns how many sire sons he has already left.

“One of the most phenomenal things about Extreme Choice is one in every 11 colts that runs by him ends up being a highly commercial stallion prospect,” Field tells The Straight.

“He’s had 55 colts run, I think this is the most phenomenal stat. We are talking Stay Inside, Tiger Of Malay, Extreme Warrior, Don Corleone, and now Devil Night.

“It’s that stat which puts him ahead of any other stallion in Australia in my eye.”

Because of his restricted fertility and small books, it has been hard comparing Extreme Choice historically to the best stallions. A statistical outlier, with such smaller numbers, it could be argued his success might have been a statistical anomaly.

But with 117 runners now to his credit across five crops, the numbers continue to stack up that the son of Not A Single Doubt is a generational breeding influence.

“He’s had a big enough sample size and by far enough success, and does it year in, year out, that he’s just a very special stallion.” Field said.

“He is one of the rarest there’s ever been. He’s the leading group one winners-to-runners stallion on the planet.”

The Straight’s Run The Numbers column revealed last month that Extreme Choice’s Group 1 percentage was better than 21st century global stars Galileo, Frankel and Dubawi, or any Australian stallion this century.

Run The Numbers – Extreme Choice and the fastest to five

Statistically, Extreme Choice has been at warp speed since the time his first crop hit the track. On Saturday, he became easily the fastest Australasian stallion this century to reach five individual Group 1 winners. Run The Numbers examines his amazing run rate.

The StraightBren O’Brien

With those sorts of numbers, it is little wonder Newgate had the confidence to lift his fee.

“It wouldn’t have mattered whether we posted the horse at $400,000 or $300,000, he would have been, for the limited number of bookings that are available, well over-subscribed,” Field said.

While limited in book size and fertility, Extreme Choice has consistently served 100 mares a season over the past four years. Breeders now know what to expect, while Newgate has ensured he remains ready to serve those numbers, spacing out his duties.

“How we’re managing the horse, he’s running the best he ever has per cycle to get mares in foal,” Field said.

The halo effect of being one of those sons of Extreme Choice, plus the positive reception of buyers to Stay Inside’s first crop has led Newgate to lift the Golden Slipper winner’s 2025 fee to $66,000 in his fourth season.

A price rise in the season a sire has his first runners to the track is an unusual move, but Field said Newgate probably reacted too much to the stallion fee market when dropping his fee from $77,000 to $55,000 last year.

“His first yearlings have been unbelievably well sought after, and they’ve been beautiful stock, they  couldn’t have been better animals,” he said.

“They’re selling well above expectations. He’s got a wonderful shareholder base in him and they’re using the horse aggressively.  We are in a position where we’ve put his fee up from $50,000 to $60,000. We probably potentially mispriced him last year.”

Cosmic Force is the other stallion of Newgate’s 16 to have a fee rise. He jumps from $11,000 back to $16,500 (inc GST) which is what he started his career out at.

Two of Newgate’s proven stallions have had significant price drops. Both Capitalist and Russian Revolution stood at $66,000 last year, but have had their fees cut to $44,000 and $33,000 respectively.

“With Capitalist, I think we’ve arguably underpriced him (in 2025), but we’ve done it because there’s such an importance out there for a horse like him,” Field said.  

“He was the eighth leading sire in Australia last year. He’s always one of the leading sires by winners in the country. He’s only a young stallion. We just feel like we wanted to price him so breeders could breed to a proven stallion at we think is a no-brainer fee.

“It really puts breeders in a position where they can be really profitable.”

Field acknowledged Russian Revolution’s momentum, in terms of racetrack results and sale ring results, hasn’t continued forward from the early promise as a champion first and second-season sire. He attributes this to an ‘ordinary’ book of mares in his third and fourth season.

“His fifth and sixth book of mares, these last two seasons were just phenomenal. They’re a much better quality book of mares than his first and second season book of mares, and certainly much better than his third and fourth, I think there is an upswing coming there,” he said.

Among the nine stallions whose price remains the same as last year is Ozzmosis, who will serve his second crop. Field revealed the son of Zoustar will have an even higher quality book that his first season.

“He was a very important horse. We were very bullish on him. We feel, without sounding cliched, he ticks every box,” he said.

“He was a Coolmore Stud Stakes winner and an unbeaten two-year-old by a champion stallion, and a horse that would be unquestionably the most talented he’s ever had. We’ll be breeding more mares of our own to Ozzmosis than any other stallion on our roster this season,” he said.

Field said Newgate was very unlikely to add any new blood to its stallion ranks in 2025.

“We’ve been offered a couple of horses, lesser expensive horses to stand this year, but we feel  in this market, we want to focus on the blue chip stuff,” he said.

“Unless it’s a horse that was to come up, that we were really, really, ultra bullish on, we’re happy to have a year off from bringing any new horses in.” 

Newgate 2025 service fees