Star’s one-bid strategy lands Classic session-topping Extreme Choice filly

One bid. That’s all it took for Star Thoroughbreds’ Denise Martin and her agent Vin Cox to land the top lot on the opening day of the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

And that honour went to an Extreme Choice-Nais Ko filly at a price tag of $425,000, the highest-priced of the 195 yearlings to sell at Riverside Stables on Sunday during a session which turned over almost $19 million.

By the same sire as Star’s Group 1-winning mare Espiona as well as Blue Diamond winner Devil Night, a colt by the Newgate Farm stallion who Cox helped select during his time at Yulong, the filly was one of 19 yearlings to sell for $200,000 or more.

There were bids flying left, right and centre for the Extreme Choice filly, but Cox and Martin bided their time before striking.

“You judge the market as you will and we figured that she was probably going to be somewhere in the $400,000 to $500,000 range and hoping there wasn’t going to be anyone north of that,” Cox said of their one-bid strategy.

The fourth living foal out of Nais Ko, who has already produced the city-winning two-year-old Heinous, a filly by Brutal, the filly was sold by Newgate Farm as part of the stud’s joint venture with Gooree.

“They’re (Extreme Choices) are a rare commodity, they have that scarcity value and when you see a nice one, you’ve got to dig deep and put the seatbelt on and get in (to buy them),” Cox said.

“She’s a lot like her sire and a lot like her grandsire in Not A Single Doubt. She’s quite a strong, precocious looking type of filly. She’s got a good head on her in terms of she’s sensible. 

“She looks like she’s one that’s up and ready to roll. So, we’re looking forward to getting her going and the sire’s done exceptionally well in the stable (of Chris Waller) and Star’s done very well with the breed as well.

“So, let’s hope those purple colours with the white stars come to the fore again.”

You have to dream at a horse sale and that’s exactly what BK Racing’s Ben Vassallo is doing, putting the Inglis Millennium and Golden Slipper on the wishlist for his new $400,000 Hellbent colt, the day’s second highest-priced yearling.

Vassallo has every right to be optimistic, with the son of Yarraman Park’s Hellbent from the family of Group 1-winning sprinter Shamexpress, the sire of Hong Kong’s champion Ka Ying Rising. 

Added to that is the fact that BK Racing’s trainer of choice, Warwick Farm-based Gary Portelli, has already won two Golden Slippers with She Will Reign and Fireburn.

“We’ve got (city winner) Long Legs with Gary. She was a nice Premier (sale) purchase by Russian Revolution, but she needed time,” Vassallo said. 

“I think he’s done a great job managing that horse. He can obviously train any horse, but he’s got a brilliance about him, winning two Golden Slippers with about 40 or 50 horses in work, which I think is pretty amazing.

“He’s a nice well bred colt that looks like he’s going to run early and he’s going into a great stable.”  

Riverstone Lodge, which is run by Nick Taylor, sold the colt out of Miramare, who had proven a difficult breeder, with her first three foals all dying before producing her first live foal, a daughter of Pride Of Dubai.

Vassallo is also hoping the luck has turned for the better and that it pays off with the son of Hellbent.

“Let’s start with the Millennium and we’ll worry about a Slipper after that,” he quipped.

For Kurrinda Bloodstock’s Sean Driver, day one of the Classic sale was about maintaining stakes-winning trainer relationships and forging new ones.

The growing syndicator, whose silks have been sported by Group 1 winner Private Harry and Gimcrack Stakes-winning two-year-old Shiki among others, reacquainted with trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott for a $300,000 daughter of Too Darn Hot.

Shiki, who is also by Too Darn Hot, ramped up her Golden Slipper campaign with a barrier trial victory at Canterbury on Friday for Bott and Waterhouse.

Bott credited the Monarch Stud-sold Too Darn Hot filly, who is the fifth foal out of seven-time winner Lady Sioux, with demonstrating a temperament which could have her racing as an early season two-year-old and targeting races such as the $2 million Inglis Millennium.

“We were able to partner with Kurrinda Bloodstock to buy her and we’ve had a bit of luck with the progeny of Too Darn Hot together,” Bott said in reference to Shiki. 

Earlier, Kurrinda Bloodstock also joined forces with Ciaron Maher for the first time, with the trainer adding to his stable’s stocks with exposure to emerging sire Sword Of State.

Driver and Maher signed for a $260,000 son of Cambridge Stud’s young sire, whose second crop appeal with buyers was evident at the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka sales last month when he sired the highest-priced lot.

Sold by Windsor Park Stud, he is the first foal out of Rip Van Winkle mare Florencenightingale, a three-quarter-sister to stakes winner Euro Angel, herself the dam of Snitzel’s stakes-winning colt Mr Mozart.

“To me, he was in the top three of the sale. I just loved the way he moved, carried himself with his good attitude,” Driver said.

“You never want to pay overs for a horse, but realistically I thought he was well above average and Warwoven is arguably the most exciting two-year-old in the country (by the same sire). 

“The stallion’s doing a fantastic job, it’s a great farm, ticked a lot of boxes and I’m excited to bring him home.”

Meanwhile, the Zousain half-brother to Kurrinda’s headline horse Private Harry was also sold at the Classic sale, with Archibald Racing going to the $300,000 for the colt from the draft of Rheinwood Pastoral. 

“It’s probably obvious that we liked him because we’ve come back to see him about four times,” trainer Annabel Archibald said.

“But I just thought he was the best mover on the complex. Obviously, the mare’s already produced a Group 1 winner in Private Harry and Rheinwood, we’ve been successful buying from the farm before.

“We purchased our own Group 1 winner Libertad from the farm.”

The opening session, which cleared 80 per cent and averaged $96,638 with a median of $75,000, sets up Inglis to better last year’s aggregate of $54.768 million for the three days.

“I’d like to do better than last year, and I think we put ourselves in a good footing to do that, but I’d be very reluctant to expect that to happen,” Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch said. 

“With 270-lot days, you get a pretty fair spread of horses. I don’t think there’s any bias in terms of where horses land.

“Somebody asked me the same question earlier on, and I had a feeling that I felt like there were plenty of horses that I thought were especially nice on day three, but I couldn’t tell you that there’s any particular bias in any of the days.

“A number of the people who were here, inspected and left, or who had people inspect for them and were just coming for sale days, or who were just arriving on sale days, we just saw a lot of people here looking to participate.”

Day two starts at 10am.

2026 Classic day 1 stats (2025 stats in brackets)

Catalogued 270 (270)

Offered 220 (243)

Sold: 196 (177) 

Clearance: 80% (73%) 

Average: $96,938 ($99,952) 

Median: $75,000 ($80,000)

Gross: $18,941,000 ($17,691,500)