Extreme Choice was the Champion Australian 2YO sire and Champion First Crop Sire last season and one of his star performers was talented colt Tiger of Malay, who resumed from a brief winter spell to win the Group III ATC Up and Coming Stakes (1300m) at Kembla on Saturday.
The Richard and Michael Freedman trained colt was burdened with a whopping 61kg, but under a cool well timed ride from James McDonald had enough left on the line to win by a nose.
Already a Group II winner as a juvenile and third in the Group I BRC JJ Atkins Stakes, Tiger of Malay has the overall record of three wins and two placings from eight starts with prizemoney topping $900,000.
“You see it year in year out that a lot of top two-year-olds don’t come back at three for various reasons,’’ Michael Freedman said.
“To see ‘Tiger’ chalk up a Group 3 at his first run back as a three-year-old with that big weight showed his quality and consolidates him as a stallion prospect for Henry Field and the Newgate crew.’’
James McDonald was well pleased with Tiger of Malay.
“He’s a very talented colt, he’s got good determination. He obviously had a good grounding in Brisbane and he’s furnished into a lovely animal now and I’m sure wherever Michael places him he’ll be very competitive,” he said.
The brilliant colt is being aimed at the Group 1 $1m Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill on September 25, but his path to that race is yet to be decided.
A $255,000 Inglis Easter purchase from the Tyreel stud draft for China Horse Club / Newgate Bloodstock, Tiger of Malay was bred by WA breeder Bridie O’Bree and is a half-brother to Group III winners Samizdat and Samovare being the best of six winners from six to race from Sambar.
Samizdat was also a stakes-winner again on Saturday taking out the Listed WATC Belmont Newmarket Handicap in Perth.
A More Than Ready (USA) mare from the family of Golden Slipper winners Dark Eclipse and Kiamichi, Sambar has not had a live foal since Tiger of Malay, but is now in foal to Lonhro.
Tiger of Malay is one of three stakes-winners from a first crop of 48 foals for Extreme Choice joining Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside and Xtremetime.
The fertility troubled sire has made a huge impact and his fee at Newgate this spring is by application.
