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.
It would be easy to suggest, given his unusual fertility profile, that Extreme Choice’s extraordinary statistics need to be taken with a grain of salt.
But with 116 runners now across five crops, the data set is getting to the point where it is more than credible, even if that suggests that his performance may be incredible.
On Saturday, he marked a fifth individual Group 1 winner when Devil Night emulated what his sire achieved as a racehorse in 2016 in winning Victoria’s best two-year-old race, the Blue Diamond Stakes.
It was just the third time a previous winner of the Blue Diamond had produced a subsequent winner as a sire, the other two occasions coming in 2006 and 2005 through Undoubtedly and Nadeem, who were both by 1999 victor Redoute’s Choice.
Extreme Choice was also just the second sire in history to produce both a Blue Diamond winner and a Melbourne Cup winner, joining Street Cry (Shocking - 2009 Cup and Pride Of Dubai - 2015 Blue Diamond).
Even more notably, the Newgate resident achieved this in the same season, after Knight’s Choice upset victory in the famous Flemington handicap in November.
Extreme Choice now has winners in three of the five Australian Group 1 races, the Blue Diamond, Golden Slipper and Champagne Stakes, as well as the Melbourne Cup, the Coolmore Classic and the VRC Oaks.
Measuring by the number of runners, he is now clearly the fastest Australasian stallion this century to get to five individual Group 1 winners, having done it with 116 of his progeny to the track.
Devil Night wins the 2025 Blue Diamond Stakes. (Vision: YouTube)
It took Redoute’s Choice 156 runners to achieve the same feat, while for NZ-based import Volksraad, it was 175 runners.
The only other Australasian sire we could find since 2000 to get to five Group 1 winners with fewer than 200 runners was Dundeel, who did it with 198. Northern Meteor was 207, Proisir 221 and Shamus Award 269.
It took Pierro 265 runners, Darci Brahma 293 and Fastnet Rock, who currently has 44 Group 1 winners, 298.
Just a quick note on data before 2000. It’s not clear that this data is counting all runners for sires like Danehill and Zabeel, who according to the research methods we employed, reached the five individual Group 1 winners milestone off just 46 and 84 runners respectively. There isn’t enough detail to establish this as an accurate measure, so we will confine ourselves to post-2000 data.
Fastest to five G1 winners since 2000 (Primarily Aus/NZ based)
*shuttled
Data courtesy of Arion.co.nz
In equine run-rate terms, Extreme Choice is batting at David Warner-style pace, but without the opportunities. It would be like telling Warner in his heyday that he could only play in every three or four matches compared to his teammates.
Extreme Choice’s fertility issues have been much discussed, but Newgate has managed to get him to his first crop of above 50 in 2024, 52 to be exact. While managing a sub-fertile stallion can be challenging, the statistics he is putting out in terms of performance on the track are so remarkable as to make it well and truly worthwhile.
The unusual impact of this can be seen when measuring the elapsed time it has taken for various stallions to get to the five Group 1 winner mark.
It was 1666 days between when Extreme Choice’s first crop were eligible to hit the track and when he registered his fifth Group 1 winner. For Redoute’s Choice, the same milestone came up in 799 days, while the only other Australasian sire we could find who did it in less than 1000 days was Northern Meteor (911 days).
Galileo, the leading producer of Group 1 winners globally, with 103, reached the five individual Group 1 winners mark with 245 runners on the books and 911 days into his stud career. Just to give that some context, Extreme Choice got to the five Group 1 winners milestone with less than half the runners as Galileo but it took him two seasons longer.
Extreme Choice’s percentage of Group 1 winners to runners of 4.31 per cent is globally elite. We found 10 sires in history that have five or more Group 1 winners with a higher percentage than that, but all but one of them are from the 20th century, which makes verification of those runner stats difficult.
His nearest rival when it comes to Australasian-bred stallions this century is Savabeel on 2.59 per cent while Redoute’s Choice, on 2.57 per cent across his decorated career, is next.
Fastnet Rock’s Group 1 strike-rate is 1.99 per cent, Proisir 1.78 per cent, Northern Meteor 1.63 per cent and Thorn Park 1.61 per cent.
Knight's Choice wins the 2024 Melbourne Cup. (Vision: YouTube)
Of the last three champion sires of Australia, I Am Invincible has 1.22 per cent Group 1 winners to runners, Snitzel 1.31 per cent and Written Tycoon 1.36 per cent. Zoustar, who many expect to be the next champion sire of Australia, is at 0.91 per cent.
All of the above have had five or more individual Group 1 winners.
In terms of local stallions with high percentages, but fewer than five Group 1 winners, Worthy Cause leads the way on 2.17 percent (one from 46). Then follows The Autumn Sun on 1.97 per cent, Rebel Dane and Vanbrugh on 1.96 per cent and Castelvecchio and Gold Standard on 1.89 per cent.
Group 1 winners-to-runners ratio of selected global sires since 2000
