I Am Invincible proves Australia’s best after another stunning season
Yarraman Park’s star sire scores breakthrough general sires’ premiership
I Am Invincible’s (Invincible Spirit) crowning moment, his and Yarraman Park’s maiden champion Australian sire title, has been more than five decades in the making for the Mitchell family. The studmasters have ridden the inevitable highs and lows of the industry and reached the pinnacle when the 2021-22 season came to a close yesterday.
Through ups and downs, encountering droughts and financial hardship along the way, the Mitchell family was last night able to reflect on their years of hard work and that their champion stallion was also Australia’s number one sire, with progeny earnings of $19,860,096 for the past 12 months of racing.
He stands atop Coolmore’s So You Think (High Chaparral), who enjoyed a stellar autumn to see his progeny earnings surge to $19,313,755, while Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), a four-time champion, was ranked third by earnings with $17,898,452
The coveted first season sire title was taken out by Russian Revolution by earnings and winners, the second freshman title won by a Newgate Farm stallion in as many years; the second season won by Japanese shuttler Maurice (Screen Hero), the sire of Hitotsu and Mazu, while Capitalist (Written Tycoon) landed the second season sire title by winners with 72.
The two-year-old title was taken out by Rebel Dane (California Dane) – the sire of trainer Gary Portelli’s Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) and Inglis Sires (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Fireburn – and, as a result of the filly’s emergence, the stallion has relocated to Widden in the Hunter Valley this year after spending his first five domiciled in Victoria, painted as a breed-to-race sire rather than a commercial proposition.
Lyndhurst Stud’s Better Than Ready (More Than Ready) won the juvenile title by winners after waging an enthralling battle with his Queensland rival Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo), siring 25 two-year-old winners from 70 runners in 2021-22, a two-win margin over the runner-up.
The three-year-old title was also won by I Am Invincible ($7,601,947 prize-money from 58 winners) and the late Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) claimed his third champion broodmare sire premiership in four seasons. As a damsire, his progeny earned $29,491,158, the three-time Group 1 winner Hitotsu accounting for $3,171,250 of that.
In New Zealand, Savabeel (Zabeel) added an eighth consecutive champion sire premiership, his progeny accruing NZ$3,392,269, to further enhance his extraordinary record at stud, while Cambridge Stud’s high-profile shuttler Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) won the country’s first season sire title.
I Am Invincible’s feats – led by Coolmore’s dual Group 1 winner Home Affairs, Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) winner Marabi and The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Lombardo, his 17 individual stakes winners helping him deny So You Think – places him as the most successful stallion for the season by prize-money and individual winners.
Arrowfield Stud’s Snitzel retains the record for the most progeny earnings in a season with his 2017-18 season returning $29,243,613, the season his sprinting son Redzel won the inaugural The Everest (1200m), while the following season the stallion achieved progeny earnings of $24,267,820.
I Am Invincible’s trajectory has been well documented, retiring to the Scone stud in 2010 at a fee of $11,000 (inc GST) as a Group 3-winning sprinter who was also runner-up the 2009 Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m), won by Takeover Target (Celtic Swing) no less, before claiming first season sire honours in 2013-14 – and his service fee rising to a 2022 equal-high figure of $247,500.
Early yesterday, Arthur Mitchell visited the stallion barn as he always does, checking in on I Am Invincible, and it gave him pause for reflection on Yarraman Park Stud’s champion Australian stallion and the ride he’s taken them on after laying eyes on him in early 2010 at then-trainer Peter Morgan’s Victorian stables with a record of five wins from 13 starts.
“We’ve been here [at Scone] since 1969, so we’ve had multiple good stallions, bad stallions and shocking stallions – we’ve had a bit of everything – so to find this horse at the sort of price that we found him at, and obviously the effort we’ve made to make him and support him, it is very satisfying for the family in general,” Mitchell told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“We’ve been doing this for a long, long time and it’s been a work in progress. We took the farm over from my father [Major James].
“We had to rebuild it, re-fence it and every cent we earned was put back into the farm for years and years. We lived a pretty frugal life, so to get a stallion like this – it’s not the culmination because we’re still going – but it’s been a long-held dream.
“When we first got the horse, we knew he was good-looking and we were just hoping we were going to get a nice bread-and-butter stallion, but he has been able to lift us to another level.”
I Am Invincible has sired a total of 79 stakes winners since his first crop graced the racecourse in 2013-14, his juveniles that season ensuring he was awarded the Australian champion first season sire title.
As well as having the highest-profile colt retire to stud this year in Home Affairs, he also sired New Zealand Group 1-winning mare Imperatriz and his yearlings have consistently been sought after by Australasia’s biggest buyers.
This year, his 91 yearlings sold at public auction realised $51.288 million at an average of $563,604 and a median price of $500,000. His highest-priced colt, a half-brother to Aquis Farm stallion Dubious (Not A Single Doubt), sold for $1.9 million at the Magic Millions sale, while a half-sister to top-class sprinter Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt) fetched $2 million at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
Mitchell said I Am Invincible’s ability to produce “such athletic and sound horses” enabled the horse to claim the sires’ premiership for the first time, having finished runner-up to Written Tycoon (Iglesia) last season, and to Snitzel for three consecutive years, beginning in 2017-18.
“Trainers aren’t doing as much with them at two, although he’s going to end up with the most two-year-old stakes winners [five] of any stallion, but I think on the whole they get better with a little bit of age,” Mitchell said.
“He’s certainly not going to fall off the perch; he’s still got the numbers coming through.
“He’s going to cover 170-odd mares this year, all of very high quality, and we have always managed his books and now we are managing him given his age as well (18).
“He is still fertile and good at his job, but we’ve just got to take him year by year and look after him.”
Russian Revolution joins rare company
I Am Invincible’s roster mate and sire son Hellbent finished runner-up to Russian Revolution on the first season sire table by winners with 11 (he also sired a winner in New Zealand).
Newgate Farm’s Henry Field says Russian Revolution has entered rare company with his feat, landing the freshman title by prize-money and winners.
The rise of Newgate was cemented last year when Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) held off roster mate Capitalist (Written Tycoon) for the first season sires’ title and Russian Revolution has bolstered the Hunter Valley farm with his emergence over the past 12 months.
Russian Revolution had his daughter Revolutionary Miss win the Blue Diamond Prelude (F) (Gr 2, 1100m) and finish runner-up in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), while colt Rise Of The Masses won the Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m).
Russian Conquest, Russian Revolution’s first winner in the Max Lees Classic (900m) at Newcastle last November, also finished runner-up in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) to be one of the stallion’s four stakes placegetters at two from his 47 runners.
“We have been fortunate to have some exceptional stallion prospects and we have a big syndicate and great partners in these horses, so it’s been wonderful to see all of our partners really kick up and get behind them and that’s really made the difference to getting them to become champion first season sires,” Field said.
“It’s extremely hard to be the champion first season sire anywhere in the world, let alone Australia, and in the case of Russian Revolution, in the past decade, only I Am Invincible, Northern Meteor and Russian Revolution have been champion first season sire by both winners and prize-money earners and that’s an illustrious group of horses.”
As expected, Russian Revolution has earned a fee increase to $71,500 (inc GST) this year, having stood for $55,000 in his first two seasons and $44,000 last year.
“It is exciting to see him with nice (now three-year-olds) back trialling. Rise Of The Masses and Revolutionary Miss trialled on Friday morning (at Gosford and Rosehill respectively) and Russian Conquest trials on Tuesday and I am very confident that the horses will only get better as they get older,” he said.
“Russian Revolution was a horse that was a reasonably immature two-year-old who developed into a better three-year-old and four-year-old, so his own racing style was to get better and better and I suspect his stock will do the same, there’s no reason to think they won’t.”
Maurice, who will stand for $88,000 (inc GST) this year, was the runaway winner of the second season sires’ title, justifying Arrowfield Stud’s decision to bring the Japanese stallion back to Australia last year, after Covid meant he was unable to shuttle to Australia in 2020.
He had 40 individual winners from 77 runners last season. Mazu, the last-start Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1200m) winner, has already been locked-in to represent Arrowfield and The Star in this year’s Everest. The Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained Hitotsu, winner of the Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m), the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m), is on the comeback trail from injury, the elite horses capable of keeping the stallion in the limelight in the new season.
By winners, Capitalist sired 72 individual winners from 184 runners, headed by Kia Ora Stud’s first season sire Captivant, to hold off Arrowfield’s Shalaa (Invincible Spirit), the sire of 53 winners from 121 runners, highlighted by promising two-year-old Semillion, winner of the $400,000 Inglis Banner (RL, 1000m) and the Kindergarten Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m).
“Capitalist went really well in the spring and over the summer. It’s well known and well documented that his progeny prefer dry ground rather than wet ground and, clearly, we’ve had a very wet autumn and winter, which didn’t help him, but with him, I think he’s in for a big spring,” Field suggested.
“It’s wonderful to see Sebonack, the Capitalist colt with Team Hawkes, trial like a bomb on Friday and I feel he’s a horse who is progressive.”
Extreme Choice, a subfertile stallion with a limited number of foals born each year, gave another reminder of his talent when Extremely Lucky unleashed a barnstorming finish to win the SAJC Lightning Stakes (Listed, 1050m) in Adelaide on Saturday, the stallion’s sixth stakes winner from 40 runners last season.
The sire of 2021 Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside, his second crop included the Anthony Cummings-trained She’s Extreme, runner-up in the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes and the winner of the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), turning the tables on Fireburn.
“Extreme Choice is a revelation; he had another Group 1 winner, he’s running at an extraordinary stakes winners to runners ratio from small books of insignificant mares. He’s a very special stallion,” Field said.
“And Flying Artie [sixth by earnings on the second season sires’ table], he’s not doing too much wrong, either. He’s had a top-liner in Artorius amongst a group of other very smart animals. As a sire of good, tough racehorses, he’s doing a terrific job and I think he’s an underestimated stallion in the marketplace.”
Savabeel, 21, and still going strong
Waikato Stud’s Mark Chittick says there is no doubt, if indeed there was any, that Savabeel is an all-time great of not only New Zealand, but the Australasian stallion ranks.
Savabeel, who won his eighth Grosvenor Award as New Zealand’s champion stallion in 2021-22, turned 21 today. He was also Australasia’s leading sire of Group 1 winners last season with six: Probabeel, Noverre, The Chosen One, Mo’unga, The Perfect Pink and Savy Yong Blonk.
“The incredible thing was the amount of Group 1 winners and stakes winners he had, which puts him right at the top throughout Australasia,” Chittick told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“For him to be the leading sire of Group 1 winners in Australasia is something we’re incredibly proud of and we’re very lucky to have him.
“We regard Australia as the toughest and best racing environment in the world at present, so that’s the level that we’re talking about with Savabeel.”
Last season’s 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner at Riccarton, Noverre will stand at Waikato Stud this season as Chittick attempts to continue the sire line through the former Jamie Richards-trained colt.
“There’s a small window for these horses with which to showcase their ability and we would love to have seen Noverre over in Australia and with Probabeel picking up an injury as well, that’s two key horses ruled out early in the season and, but for that, Savabeel’s results might have been even better still,” he said.
Savabeel sired 19 stakes winners last season, eight in New Zealand, while he had 48 winners from 118 runners in his home country, with progeny earnings tallying NZ$3,392,269.
The late Cambridge Stud stallion Tavistock (Montjeu) finished runner-up with 61 winners, four of them in stakes company, while Burgundy (Redoute’s Choice), another late stallion, was third.
Per Incanto (Street Cry), who enjoyed success in Australia and Hong Kong last season, was fourth, ahead of Rich Hill pair Proisir (Choisir) and Shocking (Street Cry).
“The young Savabeel horses coming through, the two-year-olds, those that we own that I know are coming through and also outside, I’m sure it’s going to continue for the next few years,” Chittick said of Savabeel’s fortunes in the coming seasons.
“This is his eighth title now and to become the second-most-winning stallion of champion sire titles is quite incredible. To be second to only Foxbridge is an honour. I could certainly see him hitting double figures (in titles).
“With his last few crops I know a few of the breeders and shareholders in him, like ourselves, are getting very protective of fillies by him. He’s finished seventh on the New Zealand broodmare sires list this season [behind O’Reilly], so there’s no doubt that in his second chapter he’ll dominate that as well.”
The rebuilding of Cambridge Stud under the ownership of Brendan and Jo Lindsay also gathered momentum last season with Almazor’s first season sire title, with talented colt Dynastic landing the NZ$1 million Karaka Million (RL, 1200m), one of three winners from ten runners in New Zealand. He also had four juvenile winners in Australia.
Cambridge Stud chief executive Henry Plumptre was mindful of the expectation on the new season three-year-olds by Almanzor, but he is encouraged by what the shuttle sire has achieved so far with limited runners (24 across Australia and New Zealand).
The weight of expectation was heightened by the fact his first crop yearlings were so well received by the market, averaging $189,594 in 2021 and $165,833 this year, but Plumptre said he was pleased Cambridge Stud had the title in its keeping courtesy of Almanzor.
“We don’t ring trainers routinely, we wait for them to tell us, but the Almanzors are in a range of yards in Australia, which really makes a difference to a stallion,” Plumptre said.
“We’ve got them with Peter Moody, Chris Waller, Ciaron Maher, Danny O’Brien and Trent Busuttin and the important thing was that they came back and bought them again this year which, although we hadn’t had many runners by the yearling sales, was telling me that they like what they see and they’re going to come back and get another lot.”
He added: “We shouldn’t be dismissive of the New Zealand first season sires’ trophy, it’s a great thing to have for us, but I don’t want to get too carried away about it because with Almanzor there’s always been a great weight of expectation on him, and it’s been positive expectation because of the first foals he threw in the southern hemisphere and the way they sold as yearlings was pretty spectacular.”
The New Zealand second season sires’ title was won by Vadamos (Monsun) with progeny earnings of NZ$652,560, while Belardo (Lope De Vega), runner-up by earnings, sired a New Zealand-leading 16 individual winners.