Back-to-back sire titles for I Am Invincible
Yarraman Park’s champion stallion betters first premiership with $24.4 million season
Last year’s champion sires’ title was as much about the Mitchells and Yarraman Park as it was about their star stallion I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit).
Twelve months on and in claiming back-to-back Australian general sires premierships, season 2022-2023 is I Am Invincible’s time to be front and centre and duly recognised for his ongoing feats.
In banking $23,405,698 in progeny earnings last season, bettering his 2021-22 championship of $19,867,371, he joins greats such as Fastnet Rock (Danehill), Encosta De Lago (Fairy King), New Zealander Zabeel (Sir Tristram) and Marscay (Biscay) to appear twice on the national honour roll, the 14th stallion to achieve the feat twice since the turn of the 20th century.
Of the 202 winners sired by I Am Invincible, who also hit new heights in the yearling sales ring in 2023 averaging $675,489, 22 were at stakes level, led by Group 1-winning sprinters In Secret and Imperatriz, the latter who won at the highest level in Australia and New Zealand last season.
Coolmore’s So You Think (High Chaparral) was runner-up, defied by the rags-to-riches Hunter Valley powerhouse two seasons in a row, with the ten-time Group 1 winner’s progeny earnings on the brink of $19 million last season.
Third was New Zealand’s Savabeel (Zabeel), dethroned in his home country by Proisir (Choisir), whose Australian deeds were largely on the back of Golden Eagle (1500m) and TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner I Wish I Win and Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Major Beel.
Savabeel, who sired 98 individual Australian winners, had progeny earnings of $18,481,108. He also had NZ$2,681,480 progeny earnings in New Zealand.
Four-time champion Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), two years I Am Invincible’s senior, turns 21 today and he can celebrate in the knowledge that his son Shinzo won the 2023 Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
He also sired 14 other stakes winners, four of them from two-year-olds including Shinzo to hand him the juvenile title, helping Snitzel’s progeny earnings to $18,137,195, enough to see him tabled in fourth.
Widden’s 13-year-old Zoustar (Northern Meteor), seen by many pundits as an heir apparent to those champions above him, was fifth on last season’s premiership table and he was equal by winners (74) on the three-year-old table alongside I Am Invincible.
Zoustar also sired 17 individual two-year-old winners, a table which was topped by Queensland-based Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) who had 23 individual juvenile winners during the past season.
Yarraman Park’s Harry Mitchell yesterday wouldn’t rule out I Am Invincible being able to make it a three-peat given the number of just turned three-year-olds and four-year-olds he has coming through.
“He’s had a good year because he didn’t win an Everest or a Golden Eagle and it’s going to be very hard to become champion sire now with those huge money races, but who says he won’t win one (in the new season)?” Mitchell told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I think he’s had the most stakes winners, the most winners and the most prize-money, so it’s been a dominant year for him.
“He’s had 20 (two-year-old) winners and six stakes-winning two-year-olds and he’s had a very good year with his three-year-olds and obviously his older horses have done well, too, with mares like Imperatriz.
“He’s consistent across the board. He is a very good sire of two-year-olds, but some of them, if you give them that bit more time, it doesn’t hurt either, so he’s got that balance.”
Yarraman Park also has confidence in I Am Invincible’s sire son Hellbent continuing to deliver.
With two crops of racing age, he finished runner-up on the second season sires’ title, siring 55 individual winners including the Annabel Neasham-trained Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m)–winning juvenile filly Kristilli.
Lightly raced four-year-olds Magic Time, the P J Bell Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner during the autumn, and the stakes-placed Benedetta are also highly promising daughters of Hellbent.
“We are very happy with Hellbent. Obviously he didn’t cover the most unbelievable mares and he doesn’t cover huge books,” Mitchell said.
“He’s had 13 fewer winners than Russian Revolution, who has done a great job, and we think we’ve got some Group 1 winners in waiting this year.”
The previous season’s champion freshman, Newgate Farm’s Russian Revolution (Snitzel), enjoyed another stellar 12 months, siring Randwick Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Communist and promising Group 3-winning juvenile colts Red Resistance and Libertad, among others, to add the second season sires’ title to his record.
“His second season actually out-performed his first season in terms of two-year-old winners [20 compared to 15 in his first season] and by stakes winners as well, so that bodes well for the future,” Newgate Farm’s director of stallions Bruce Slade said yesterday.
“It’s a big job for him to have seven stakes winners and … importantly, he’s doing it at the commercial end of the market, which is that speed and precocity in feature races at two and three.
“It gives you a lot of confidence that he’s going to be a horse that is fighting out stallion titles in the future.”
Hellbent may have been denied a sires’ title by Russian Revolution, however, Yarraman Park does have Brave Smash (Tosen Phantom), the leading first season sire by winners, as a new recruit on its roster, relocating back to the Hunter Valley this year after a stint at Aquis Farm in Queensland.
Brave Smash’s tally of winners was 11 from 30 runners in 2022-23, while Trapeze Artist (Snitzel) and Harry Angel (Dark Angel) were next best, siring nine winners each.
“He is in front of all those other high-profile horses who stood at much higher fees. I think because he was Japanese-bred no one really understood him, but people have got to remember how good a racehorse he was,” Mitchell said.
“To get those 11 winners is a pretty good effort because they weren’t in the bush, either. They were pretty good winners, even the one from Perth (Brave Halo) who ran fourth in the Blue Diamond, he unfortunately got injured in the race and had to be put down, but there’s also Brave Mead and Kimochi who look good and there are a few others as well.
“We think he’s going to be a really good stallion.”
The coveted first season sires title by earnings goes to Coolmore shuttler Justify (Scat Daddy), the US Triple Crown champion in 2018.
No stallion has ever been supported or marketed to the degree Justify was when he shuttled to Australia for the first time a year after his blistering racetrack career in America, and the early signs from his first southern hemisphere-bred crop have been more than encouraging.
The sire of eight individual first crop winners from 21 runners, Justify’s first crop progeny is headed by Reisling Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winner Learning To Fly, SAJC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) winner Air Assault and Anzac Day Stakes (Listed, 1400m) scorer Legacies.
He was spared a season Down Under in 2022, but Coolmore has been steeled by his Australian success, to go with his 12 stakes winners in the northern hemisphere, and the Magnier family and company have vowed to back Justify to the hilt again in 2023 and beyond.
“It’s well-documented that Coolmore supported Justify with the very best of mares in his first season and that’s resulted in him becoming champion first season sire by a clear margin,” Coolmore Australia’s Tom Moore told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“What we’ve seen of Justify, not only in Australia but also in the northern hemisphere, has indicated that he is an extremely versatile and high-class stallion.
“He has produced Group winners at a range of distances and he has the highest-rated two-year-old in Europe at the moment in City Of Troy who looks like being one out of the box.
“From our perspective he’s an extremely important stallion of the future, not only in Australia but globally.”
While Snitzel holds the two-year-old premiership, the three-year-old title went to one of his former Arrowfield roster mates in Scissor Kick (Redoute’s Choice) courtesy of The Everest (1200m)–winning sprinter Giga Kick, while the broodmare sire championship was won by Redoute’s Choice, his fourth such achievement in the category.
In New Zealand, Rich Hill Stud’s Proisir claimed the champion sires’ title for the first time, ending the eight-year reign of Savabeel.
Becoming the first New Zealand stallion to achieve seasonal progeny earnings of more than NZ$4 million, Proisir sired a stunning five individual Group 1 winners over the past 12 months.
A share in Proisir sold for $265,000 in March, the same month that the Roger James and Robert Wellwood-trained three-year-old filly Prowess won two Group 1s on either side of the Tasman.
Since then, shares have sold for $400,000 and $380,000 to Godolphin and Sean Buckley respectively.
“It is great to have those sorts of people in the syndicate now. I know Godolphin are sending three mares to him, one on their shareholding and two other mares and they’re all lovely mares,” Rich Hill Stud principal John Thompson said.
“Obviously, Sean’s a big fan of his and Carl is as well and then there’s a good blend of New Zealand breeders who have done well out of the horse.
“It’s been a fantastic rise for him in the past season. He has come a long way from when he was standing for NZ$7,000 in his first season.”
Proisir’s Rich Hill roster mate Satono Aladdin (Deep Impact) was champion second season and two-year-old sire, with his three-year-old daughter Pennyweka completing the New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) and Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) double and his top-class juvenile Tokyo Tycoon winning four straight, including the Sistema Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) before being stripped of the Group 1 victory after returning a positive swab.
Savabeel’s feats on both sides of the Tasman saw him take out the Dewar Award for combined progeny earnings in Australia and New Zealand.
“It’s been a really special season and we’re hugely proud,” Waikato Stud’s Garry Chittick said. “And we’re not the only ones who can feel that way. It’s been an absolutely unbelievable year for the New Zealand industry all around, and I think everyone involved should be incredibly proud.
“Savabeel has had another great year. To be third on the Australian premiership behind I Am Invincible and So You Think is a pretty fair effort, and he’s coming away with a total of $25 million worldwide and $20 million across Australasia. Those are very special results.
“He really showed his versatility on that first day of The Championships at Randwick in April, where he had such a unique double with I Wish I Win in the TJ Smith Stakes and Major Beel in the Australian Derby.
“I think that’s the first time it’s ever been done, certainly in our part of the world – the same stallion and same breeder winning a Group 1 sprint and a Derby on the same day. That’s something we’ll never forget.”
U S Navy Flag (War Front) was the New Zealand champion first season sire.
The Oaks Stud-based stallion produced seven first crop winners from 24 runners while Waikato Stud’s Ardrossan (Redoute’s Choice) sired five from ten runners.
“I think he reached the top of the standings in about April and kept going at a good rate from there, and it’s great to have it now confirmed that he’s champion first-season sire,” The Oaks Stud’s general manager Rick Williams told NZ Racing Desk.
“He had a very good year. He just missed in a couple of Group 1s, and he has a very good percentage of stakes performers (four out of 24 runners in New Zealand, or 16.67 percent).
“The winners have come at a good rate, and he’s also had a very good number of impressive trial winners who haven’t yet raced. That’s always very encouraging as well.
“A few of those have gone to Hong Kong now, but if they do well up there, that can only be a good thing for us too in the long run. We couldn’t have asked for much more.”
O’Reilly (Last Tycoon), the late stalwart of Waikato Stud, won his fifth New Zealand broodmare sires’ title and third in succession.
Australasian champion stallions 2022-23
Title Stallion
Australia
Champion sire I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit)
First season sire Justify (Scat Daddy)
Second season sire Russian Revolution (Snitzel)
Three-year-old sire Scissor Kick (Redoute’s Choice)
Two-year-old sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice)
Broodmare sire Redoute’s Choice (Danehill)
New Zealand
Champion sire Proisir (Choisir)
Dewar Award Savabeel (Zabeel)
First season sire U S Navy Flag (War Front)
Second season sire Satono Aladdin (Deep Impact)
Three-year-old sire Proisir (Choisir)
Two-year-old sire Satono Aladdin (Deep Impact)
Broodmare sire O’Reilly (Last Tycoon)
*by earnings