Invincible Caviar
Three deities of the Australian industry, famous for three different reasons, made their mark on Saturday: the former racetrack champion; the super sire, and the outstanding broodmare.
To say former–champion is perhaps understating it: We’re dealing with probably the best sprinter of all time, once rated the best horse in the world.
Yet Black Caviar’s (Bel Esprit) breeding barn exploits have, so far, been underwhelming. Not that we could have expected them to rise anywhere near the level of her on-course deeds, mind you, but the great unbeaten mare’s five foals have netted $176,215 combined – one 45th of their mum’s $7.95 million – earnings from before the silly prize–money era, no less.
But now she looks to have a handy one, and one who – if she can’t quite match her dam’s racing success – at least brings back some awestruck memories in the looks department. Four-year-old mare Invincible Caviar (I Am Invincible), her fifth foal, has had only five starts but won for the third time, in strong fashion, at the Pakenham Cup meeting in a 1200-metre Benchmark 70, following two earlier wins at Sale.
There’s also much to reminisce about from the fact that, unlike her older siblings, she’s trained by Peter Moody, and has shared her past two wins with Black Caviar’s other half, Luke Nolen.
She’s a sizeable brown mare, like her dam, and she barged to the line to win by almost two lengths on Saturday with hints of that easy, powerful, rolling gait – and under salmon-pink colours to boot. Aside from the quality of the opposition, the main differences to her dam were the missing black dots, that she wears the Moody standard issue nose roll, and that Nolen not only had to move in the saddle but produce the whip.
While Moody and Nolen are a force, the real key as to why this one is serving better justice to her mother – already winning as many races as her four older siblings combined – could lie in her name. She is of course by the all-conquering I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), and was one of his six winners on Saturday – and ten from Friday to Sunday – which put the reigning champion sire further ahead by winners on the Australian general list (though still third on income for now behind Golden Eagle and Everest sires Savabeel and Scissor Kick).
St Vinnie of Yarraman has been improving all sorts of mares for a dozen years now. Black Caviar’s owners had tried and failed with Exceed And Excel for first foal Oscietra (filly, 5 starts, 2 wins, 1 third); Sebring for Prince Of Caviar (colt, 6 starts, 1 win, 3 seconds); Snitzel for Out Of Caviar (filly, unraced), and More Than Ready to produce Ready For Caviar (filly, 2 starts, 1 second). They were sufficiently impressed with the foal Invincible Caviar that they returned to I Am Invincible weeks later. That mating yielded the colt I Am Caviar, who also went to Moody but after two unruly starts, in September, has also gone for a gelding.
Black Caviar missed on her third straight cover from I Am Invincible in 2019, has a yearling filly by Written Tycoon, and after missing to Extreme Choice last spring went back to Vinnie last New Year’s Eve, but missed again.
Of course, any analysis of Black Caviar in the breeding barn must mention her stunning female family, brought to her through her unraced dam, the aforementioned outstanding broodmare in Helsinge (Desert Sun). Well documented as probably the strongest family in the studbook, it centres around Helsinge’s dam Scandinavia (Snippets), a dual stakes-winner and four times Group 1 placed, who also threw four black-type winners including Magnus (Flying Spur), a Group 1 victor who’s sired four more himself.
And not only was the late Helsinge’s best-known product well-represented on Saturday, her second most famous foal also met with success at Pakenham’s Cup meeting. All Too Hard (Casino Prince), Vinery Stud’s four-time Group 1 winner who’s moved imposingly up the sires’ charts in recent seasons, had Phillip Stokes’ four-year-old gelding Arran Bay victorious over 1600 metres in the day’s last race, a second win in three starts suggesting black type may lay ahead.
Having risen up the general sires list in each of his previous six seasons with racing crops – and from tenth to ninth in the past two years – All Too Hard now sits on a career-best seventh spot this season (and sixth by his 63 winners from 196 starters).
His half-sister may soon have more to boast about in the breeding department as well.
Aside from the potent female family behind Helsinge, there are other suggestions as to why Black Caviar’s mating with I Am Invincible appears to have worked better than her previous covers. Yarraman’s Harry Mitchell is a firm believer that the physicals were on-song.
“I think Invincible Caviar is the best type I’ve seen out of the mare,” Mitchell told It’s In The Blood. “She’s the best physical specimen – more power, more like her mother really. And the stallion has that physique too. He’s a big powerful stallion, so they matched up well. It was speed-on-speed, and that seems to have worked. And, at the end of the day, I Am Invincible does throw out more good horses than most stallions.”
Pedigree-wise, there’s a few sparkles in the match-up that produced Invincible Caviar.
The most obvious is the 3Sx4D dual-male in-breeding to Green Desert (Danzig) – I Am Invincible’s grandsire, and Black Caviar’s maternal grandsire, through Helsinge’s sire Desert Sun.
It’s a duplication which has form, including in Yarraman’s second stallion Hellbent (I Am Invincible), who has Green Desert at 3Sx3D via Invincible Spirit and his damsire Volksraad.
“In-breeding to Green Desert is a pattern that’s worked well for I Am Invincible,” said Jane Henning, of Pedigree Dynamics.
“Green Desert is a different type of Danzig-line stallion. He works well with other Danzig sons, including Danehill, but he’s also happy to be inbred to himself.”
Henning notes the blend also replicates members of the powerful Lady Susan family, that historically influential 1893 drop by the outstanding St Simon (Gallopin). I Am Invincible carries three members of the family in Danzig (Northern Dancer), Bletchingly (Biscay) and Rockefella (Hyperion). Aside from Danzig, Black Caviar has Rockefella coming straight through her female line, the sire of her seventh dam.
“There’s been some fantastic horses bred on that Danzig-Bletchingly-Rockefella cross, like Kingston Town, Sunline, Miss Finland and Private Steer,” Henning says. “They’ve got either Danzig-Bletchingly, or Danzig-Rockefella or all three. Line breeding to Lady Susan is a fantastic pattern.”
Invincible Caviar’s other potentially influential double-up is a 5Sx5D of the British-bred Lunchtime (Silly Season), importantly gender-balanced.
“Gender-balanced tends to bring out speed, although the Green Desert duplication seems to work through two sons,” says Henning, noting Lunchtime has always crossed well with colonial blood, including Vain (Wilkes), who Black Caviar has at 3Sx4D.
Overall, though, with a pedigree seemingly a tad short of trickery – only one mare is duplicated in nine generations, and it’s Feola in the eighth column – Invincible Caviar’s abilities mostly seem yet another big tick for her sire.
“It’s not your classic, fantastic pedigree, but then I Am Invincible tends to pluck good horses out of all sorts of pedigrees,” Henning says. “He doesn’t seem to have a real liking for one thing or the other, like some stallions will have a real bond with certain lines, like Fastnet Rock to Galileo. I Am Invincible seems to pluck them out of lots of places, and obviously he’s picked a few things out of Black Caviar.”
I Am Invincible was also in force at Doomben on Saturday. He had two stakes winners – both with Green Desert over Danehill (Danzig) at 3Sx3D – helping him to sit on 90 winners for the season, eight more than second-best Written Tycoon (Iglesia).
Garibaldi became his sire’s fourth Australian Group race winner of the season in the George Moore Stakes (Group 3, 1200m). Vinnie may have had some help from the mare this time, with the Tony Gollan-trained gelding – a $475,000 Inglis Classic yearling in 2018 – being out Sonnenblume (Exceed And Excel, by Danehill), a daughter of Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m) winner Shindig (Straight Strike), who threw another elite-level winner in Orr Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) victor Shinzig (Danehill), who was four-times Group 1 placed.
Two races earlier, the well-bred and well-named three-year-old colt Lubrication became I Am Invincible’s eighth stakes winner for the season, claiming the Pierata Plate (Listed, 1200m). A $400,000 Easter buy for trainer Matt Dunn, Lubrication is the first foal of Workdrinks (Fastnet Rock, by Danehill). Fifth dam is the great Emancipation, who being by Bletchingly causes more of that Lady Susan line breeding. And fourth dam Virage (Kenmare) threw dual Group 1 winner Virage De Fortune (Anabaa), Australasia’s joint-top three-year-old filly in 2006.