When $1.4million Extreme Choice colt Devil Night won the Group I MRC Blue Diamond Stakes last Saturday it was a massive story in the bloodstock world for a variety of reasons and for breeders contemplating rolling the dice with a service to his fertility hampered sire we can offer some good advice on how to make it work.
Our guest on the Tara Talks Racing podcast this week chatting with Craig ‘Clocker’ Tompson and I was Adam Cook, who manages Kingstar Farm for Matthew Sandblom. It's a great, wide ranging chat and well worth a listen!
Kingstar bred and sold Devil Night and the glamour colt is their third stakes-winner among the 14 in total sired by Extreme Choice and the other two are Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside and Group III winner Wollombi, who came from his first and second crops.
“Matthew Sandblom owns nearly 20% of the stallion, so we were invested from the start and we never gave up,” Adam Cook revealed.
“We kept sending mares every year even at the beginning, so we’ve always been massive supporters, but it’s very hard to breed to him.”
Hard it may be, but well worth the effort to go to a stallion that runs at 12% SW to runner and whose yearlings averaged $667,500 at Magic Millions last year with the cream of his crop this year headed to Inglis Easter where 13 have been catalogued.
Kingstar have learned much about breeding to Extreme Choice with Adam explaining the key ingredients for success include having a good Plan B for the mare, who needs to be medium plus sized and strongly built, plus the most important of all…. luck.
“When you get past the 15 day scan and get a positive it’s a great day for the farm,” he said.
“One pregnancy to Extreme is worth five to any other sire!”
