Mitchell full of optimism for Yarraman’s new season
Yarraman Park is building into the new season with high hopes Hellbent (I Am Invincible) will become a top-ten sire and his famous father can wrest back his champion sire’s crown from Zoustar (Northern Meteor).
With Arthur and Harry Mitchell’s farm boasting only three stallions, it’s a happy position to be in.
Hellbent has been nearing the top branches of the Australian stallion ranks in the past two seasons. He finished 12th on the general sires’ table in 2023-24 with just his third season of runners with 95 winners, and 14th last term with 126.
And the 13-year-old has shown with a series of recent results that he could be in for a powerful 2025-26.
Fully Lit – one of his four stakes winners of 2023-24 – stepped out for his second run as a four-year-old at Rosehill on Saturday and demolished a decent 1400-metre Benchmark 78 field by 5.19 lengths.
On Thursday at Newcastle, classy three-year-old filly Savvy Hallie resumed with an easy kill to check off her maiden over 900 metres at Newcastle, scoring by 5.48 lengths at $1.65.
With the win having followed Group seconds at her previous two starts in the autumn, expectations are high for black type success this spring for the Brad Widdup trained filly.
Savvy Hallie ran second at her third start in Rosehill’s the Baillieu (Gr 3, 1400m), beaten 1.35 lengths by the outstanding subsequent Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) hero Nepotism (Brutal).
She was then runner-up in Randwick’s Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), beaten 1.76 lengths by earlier Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) third placegetter Tempted (Street Boss).
Another Hellbent three-year-old filly causing excitement is Kelly Schweida’s Sunrays, who scored twice at Listed level in Brisbane in May and June.
Among older females, Hellbent’s two Group 1 winners are set to push his barrow again this season, with Magic Time and Benedetta – both six-year-olds from his first crop – being kept from the breeding barn for at least one more season and gearing up for spring campaigns.
Magic Time, winner of Caulfield’s Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and Randwick’s All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), reappeared with a fourth in a Caulfield Heath barrier trial last Wednesday.
Benedetta, winner of Morphettville’s The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m), is back in work. She’s been transferred from Mornington’s Jason Warren to mega trainer Ciaron Maher, purportedly to be better positioned to chase Sydney riches – which could also push Hellbent up the sires’ charts.
Magic Time and Benedetta won their Group 1s in 2023-24, helping boost Hellbent’s book of mares last spring to 143, up from 124 in 2023, both at $38,500 (all fees inc GST).
In 2022, when still at $22,000, he covered 165 mares, and it is that bumper crop who’ll be hitting the tracks as two-year-olds this season. Coupled with a gradual improvement in the quality of mares Hellbent has been serving, such numbers have Yarraman buzzing with excitement over the stallion’s prospects this season.
“We’re feeling really positive about him,” Yarraman part-owner Arthur Mitchell told ANZ News. “The way his stock are going, he’s going to go forwards and upwards.
“We’ve got a really good feeling about him with the better crops and better mares he’s been serving.
“We’d be delighted to see him finish in the top ten this season, and I’d say he’ll have a good chance. This is his fifth season of runners, so he’ll have more starters for one thing.”
Mitchell likened Hellbent’s early years at stud to those of his father, the now legendary triple champion sire I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit).
Hellbent’s first season of runners brought 11 winners from 41 starters. I Am Invincible had 15 from 45. There was one notable difference, with ‘Vinnie’ siring three stakes winners in that first term, while Hellbent went without.
Mitchell puts that comparatively slow start down to the type of mares attracted by Hellbent when he stood his first season at $27,500, retiring after one top–tier success in the MVRC William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
Hellbent had some notable competitors among Hunter Valley debutant sires in his first spring at stud, particularly dual Group 1 winner Russian Revolution (Snitzel). That Newgate Farm stallion became Australia’s champion first season sire in 2021-22, with Hellbent finishing fourth. A year later, Hellbent was runner-up to the same rival on the second season sires’ table.
“With Hellbent’s first crop, Russian Revolution got the better of the first crop type of mares,” Mitchell said.
“Then we supported him and we got reasonable support from the shareholders. We held our own for a while but now we’re putting our foot down on the gas a bit.”
Hellbent’s momentum started to build noticeably in his third season of runners, with Mitchell drawing comparisons to I Am Invincible.
With that 12th placing on the general sires’ table in 2023-24 – replete with four stakes winners – he bettered his own father, who managed just 21st in his third campaign in 2015-16. I Am Invincible fared better in season four, however, leaping to a fourth place finish which preceded four years of running second, before his three titles from 2022-24.
While Hellbent started at a fee of $27,500, I Am Invincible – who won only two stakes races at Group 3 and Listed level – served his first four years at $11,000 before hitting $110,000 in season eight, surging towards his dizzying top price of $302,500 in 2023.
“I Am Invincible started in a similar way to Hellbent,” Mitchell said. “We had to take the slow burn with ‘Vinnie’, and it took a while for breeders to support him.
“Everyone had a nice drink at the trough on ‘Vinnie’s’ way up. He went from $10,000 (plus GST) to $25,000 to $50,000. Hopefully, Hellbent will be a bit the same.
“When Hellbent started to get runners and people started to realise they could run, things started to build for him. His two Group 1 winning mares have helped a bit, now it’s a matter of keeping going.”
Hellbent has started the new season in promising fashion, with his seven winners putting him 11th on the nascent general sires’ table, and with Yarraman optimistic that thanks to his quality of mares improving, he’ll build on his career total of seven stakes winners from 292 runners.
“A few more Fully Lits would help, and we’ve got Sunrays and Savvy Hallie who are looking promising,” Mitchell said.
“He’s like a smaller version of his father. If you send a nice, good looking, big strong mare to him, you’ll get a very nice yearling.
“We’ve got some very nice yearlings by him to sell next year, which we’re excited about. We’ve got five or six at the Magic Millions who are all good types out of competitive type mares.
“Like his father, his stock have got lots of ability and they’ve got longevity, so they will train on and keep winning races, which is quite a nice attribute to have.
“Hellbent is doing better than a lot of them, so we’re pretty happy with where we are.”
Mitchell also believes I Am Invincible has an even chance of taking back his general sires’ crown this season, having been dethroned by Widden Stud’s Zoustar in 2024-25.
Zoustar comfortably beat I Am Invincible into second place by earnings, with $26.3 million to $22.8 million.
But Vinnie had it marginally over his rival by winners – 203 to 198 – and stakes winners, with 16 to 15.
While many might assume Zoustar has built an uncatchable head of steam over I Am Invincible – especially considering they are aged 15 and 21 respectively – Mitchell says it’s not a given that Zoustar will now be able to hold ‘Vinnie’ at bay.
“I’d have thought it’d be about even stevens,” Mitchell said.
“He’s got the numbers, we’ve got the numbers. We are getting older now, and we are starting to restrict ‘Vinnie’s’ numbers a bit. He’s 21, so it is going to happen.
“But for now, this season, we’ll be starting on level pegging again, so I think it’ll be interesting.”
I Am Invincible, who has eight winners to Zoustar’s 13 in the new season, on Saturday brought up his first stakes victor of 2025-26 – and his 121st overall – when Maher’s impressive three-year-old colt Jimmy Recard took Caulfield’s Vain Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m).
Meanwhile, the third member of Yarraman’s roster, dual Group 1-winning Japanese-bred sprinter Brave Smash (Tosen Phantom), will cover his seventh book of mares this spring at $27,500 (inc GST), down from $33,000.
Restricted to two mares a day, the 13-year-old has been hampered by a relatively low number of runners, and some misfortune on the track.
Brave Smash brought up his first elite victor last season through Kimochi’s Rupert Clarke Stakes, only to see the four-year-old break down and be retired late in the season. She’ll be covered by her owner Yulong’s first-season sire Growing Empire (Zoustar) this spring.
Another of Brave Smash’s four stakes winners, Brave Mead, had looked promising in claiming three stakes wins in his first 12 starts, before being fatally injured in April last year.
“Brave Smash has to have a restricted book of about 60 or 70 mares, but he’s ticking over well and is in good form, despite a bit of bad luck,” said Mitchell, whose farm acquired the stallion from Aquis for the 2023 season.
“He’s got some nice young horses coming through, and their trainers know they can gallop.”