The first sale of the year for French auction house Arqana, the February Mixed Sale on Wednesday was topped by an interesting weanling filly by Newgate Farm’s outstanding sire Extreme Choice, who covers a mare a day all year round in Australia in a bid to combat his well documented fertility issues.
Well bred imported More Than Ready mare Grey Queen (USA) arrived in Australia in 2020 in foal to Lope de Vega and the resulting foal has turned out to be classy mare Our Gold Hope, who finished second in the Group I BRC Queensland Oaks last year.
Grey Queen missed the following season, then had a colt by Pierro in 2022 and was subsequently covered by Extreme Choice on February 25 in 2023 before being shipped back to the Northern Hemisphere.
Grey Queen produced a filly from the Extreme Choice cover that was offered by JK Thoroughbreds with Haras d'Etreham boss Nicolas de Chambure snapping her up for 110,000 euros.
“She’s by an Australian stallion that has had limited runners but has very good statistics,” said Nicolas de Chambure.
“I think she’s the only Extreme Choice in Europe to go under the hammer! We like to have different bloodlines and she’ll be very easy to cross.”
The filly comes from a family well known in France as her third dam is French stakes-winner Daltawa, the dam of a pair of European Horses of the Year in Daylami and Dalakhani.
She is expected to be put into training in France in due course and ultimately join the broodmare band at Haras d’Etreham.
