News

Extreme Choice colt steals the limelight on Day 1 of Easter

29th Mar 2026

A result “beyond our wildest dreams’’ for passionate breeders Graham and Linda Huddy topped a strong opening day of trade at Riverside for the 2026 Easter Yearling Sale.

An Extreme Choice x Pretty Brazen colt – offered by Lime Country Thoroughbreds on behalf of the Huddy family – proved the headline act, selling to Coolmore for $3m.

The colt was one of eight seven-figure lots to sell on Day 1.

An emotional Linda Huddy was blown away by the result.

“I can’t hardly believe it, it will sink in eventually I guess but this is way beyond our wildest dreams,’’ she said.

“I thought at $1.5m we would have been happy but $3m, it’s unbelievable.’’

Lime Country’s Jo Griffin was delighted for both the Huddy’s and her husband Greg, who played such a vital role in the successful result.

“You can’t get your head around it, anywhere in the world, when you sell a horse for those figures so that will be special forever,’’ Jo Griffin said.

“One of the things that gets overlooked with our family is the work that Greg puts in. He is a master horseman, the hours and the time and the effort, we definitely would never get results like this without him at the helm.’’

Griffin was also stunned by the $3m figure reached today for the colt (pictured).

“You never want to get ahead of yourself but Greg and I looked at each other last night and I said to him ‘I think it’s got a two in front of it’ and he said ‘me too’ so to get $3m, it’s just fantastic,’’ Griffin said.

“The Huddy’s are one of our best and long-standing clients, friends of the family and the farm so I’m just so thrilled for them.’’

Coolmore’s Tom Magnier confirmed Chris Waller would train the colt.

“Everybody on the team liked that colt all week, Guy [Mulcaster] and Chris [Waller], Paul Shanahan, MV [Magnier], everybody liked him,’’ Magnier said.

“Obviously Extreme Choice is doing really well but the long and the short of it is he was a standout colt all week.

“He’s a very good mover, loads of quality with a lovely light step on him. In fairness, Lime Country do a very good job with their horses and I’m thrilled for Linda and Graham Huddy too.

“These top colts at any sale, you have to pay for them and we did that today.’’

Today’s second-top lot honours were shared by a pair of fillies – Extreme Choice x Speak Fondly for Newgate Farm and Zoustar x Summer Sham of Widden Stud – both of which sold for $1.8m.

The Summer Sham filly came shortly before another huge result for Widden, whose Zoustar x Sword of Light colt realised $1.35m.

“When you come here with a beautiful Zoustar colt and a beautiful Zoustar filly, you do have your expectations and we were really excited by what we had to offer but for that 10 minutes to have just happened, we’re pinching ourselves, that was pretty wild!’’ Widden’s Antony Thompson said.

“The Summer Sham, she’s a gorgeous filly, obviously a full sister to Schwarz and a filly we’ve loved from day one so to see her have over 200 parades this week and so many vets, everyone was all over her.

“We thought she was a million-dollar filly but to get $1.8m was a really fantastic result.

“We did come with a super draft and we’re certainly being well rewarded, it’s a great job from the Inglis team.’’

Dean Hawthorne – who ended Day 1 as leading buyers with 12 lots to his name either outright or with partners - signed for the Summer Sham filly on behalf of GSA Bloodstock’s Jonathan Munz.

“We didn’t think we’d have to go that high, the knees were knocking when we got up there but full credit to the boss, we kept going and got her and we’re rapt,’’ Hawthorne said.

“We’re restocking the shelves. You get the best pedigrees here, the vendors want to bring the best yearlings here and we want to buy the best so this is where we come.

“Two years ago at Easter I bought four off Widden in Napoleonic, Beskar, Price Tag and they’re all Stakes performers and we’ve got another filly coming through by Zoustar that looks Stakes class so we have a lot of luck shopping there so we’ll keep going back to the well.’’

Shane McGrath – who purchased the Extreme Choice x Speak Fondly filly with Clinton McDonald – credited Inglis’ Mitchell Bates and Newgate’s Jim Carey for persuading him to go as hard as he did on the filly.

“We had in our mind that we wanted to buy what we perceived to be the best Extreme Choice filly here, it’s a lot of money but Extreme Choice is obviously a freak statistically,’’ McGrath said.

“We spent an afternoon with [Inglis Bloodstock Research] Mitchell Bates during the week and looked at every Stakes-winning and Group-winning Extreme Choice that came through the sales just to try and find a common denominator, and we had a good chat to Jim Carey too and he said all the really good Extreme Choice’s have a beautiful action and that’s what she had.’’

Newgate’s Henry Field added: “She’s a beautiful filly from one of the great Gooree families, she was a very special filly bought by terrific judges in Shane and Clinton and I think she’ll be a top race filly because she was quite spectacular.

“Extreme Choice is obviously a great stallion but they’re just a great line up of horses, it’s his best crop of yearlings ever, the best mares he covered and he deserves to sell well because he’s a phenomenal and rare stallion.’’

At the conclusion of Day 1 the sale average sits at $452,603 with a median of $350,000 and gross of $66,080,000.

Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch was delighted with how the sale had begun.

“We felt we had prepared well for the sale but it was very difficult to speculate as to the mindset of buyers given all that is going on in the world,’’ Hutch said.

“So all things considered, I think it was a very good start to the sale, with a strong gross and solid clearance.

“The result with the Pretty Brazen colt was especially pleasing, with Linda and Graham having been incredible supporters of Inglis over the years, including when buying Pretty Brazen as a yearling at this sale.

“Chris Russell, Inglis’ NSW Bloodstock Operations Manager, saw this colt at Linda and Graham’s farm in Queensland in September and rang driving out the gate to say that it was the best yearling he had seen all year.

“He made a compelling pitch to Linda to bring the horse to Easter and for it to have worked out the way it has is very satisfying and incredible reward for his effort.

“There is a hell of a lot to look forward to tomorrow, with a big day of selling and lots of nice horses, so we are excited.

“I think it is important to note that there were over 50 yearlings offered today that could have been bought for $200,000 or less, so there’s plenty of value to be found and I expect that to continue to be the case through much of the day tomorrow.”

To enquire about a passed in lot from today’s action, contact Will Gardner from the Inglis Bloodstock team on 0480 515 694.

The second and final day of the 2026 Easter Yearling Sale will begin tomorrow at 10am at Riverside.

It will again be broadcast live on the Inglis website and Facebook and X pages via our Sale Day Live coverage from 9.30am.

Online Bidding and Make An Offer facilities will again be available on Day 2.

To view the Easter catalogue, CLICK HERE.

EASTER 2026 DAY 1 STATISTICS (2025 in brackets)

Lots offered: 191 (163)

Lots sold: 146 (129)

Clearance Rate: 76% (79%)

Average Price: $452,603 ($488,798)

Median Price: $350,000 ($375,000)

Top Price: $3,000,000 ($3,000,000)

Gross: $66,080,000 ($63,055,000)