Extreme Choice - New Winner

Twin Hills Stud’s Blue Diamond winner Daumier has left some stunning foals in his first crop this season and are certainly worth seeing.

Spring is sprung, but with G1 racing in Perth and the Magic Millions extravaganza of sales and racing set to unfold in January there is plenty of excitement in our world to inspire new owners into the sport and a bargain priced filly with an x-ray issue was the biggest story on Breednet from last weekend.

A chance purchase at Karaka has proved to be an outstanding piece of business for Waikato breeders and owners Ross and Corrine Kearney.

After more than 60 years and a multitude of top-flight success in the role, the Dennis brothers have retired from training.

This year’s publication features stories from respected industry personnel such as Ray Thomas, Andrew Rule, Bruce Clark, Trevor Marshallsea, Jess Owers, Tim Rowe, Glen Latham, Bren O’Brien, Michael Cox, Kristen Manning, Jill Williams, Tom Reilly and the Sydney Morning Herald’s senior sportswriter Iain Payten.

Newgate Farm’s Extreme Choice went very close to a juvenile stakes double at Randwick on Saturday with his colt Tempestuous going down by a head when second in the Group III ATC Breeders’ Plate and then his well related filly Bel Merci showed real class to win the Group III ATC Gimcrack Stakes (1000m).

A star studded opening session of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale is underway and before the Sceptre Session started Australian trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr and bloodstock agent Dermont Farrington found value paying 170,000 guineas for Group placed filly Ring True, while Yulong buying as Willingham snapped up a mare in foal to Too Darn Hot.

Caught U Looking was the star turn on the opening day of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale, selling to Yulong, buying as Willingham, for 1,800,000 guineas on an opening day that saw significant increases across the board and five lots sell for 500,000 guineas or more.

Hunter Durrant has been rewarded for his commitment to leading Te Akau Racing’s Riccarton barn with promotion to assistant trainer for the trans-Tasman operation.

There was a busy set of trials at Canterbury on Tuesday morning with five heats over 900m for juveniles that featured a winning double for Trapeze Artist and an interesting Justify (USA) colt for Yulong that has been named Willingham, which is the name under which they have been buying at the recent Northern Hemisphere breeding stock sale.