The Monash freeway to the breeding barn
We take a look at the unlikely record of the Sir John Monash Stakes, to be run at Caulfield this Saturday, when it comes to unearthing future stallions.
A mid-winter sprinting stakes race is not often the platform for the breed shapers of the next generation, but on a cool winter’s day in July 2009, a future Australian champion stallion would register the final win of his racing career.
Veteran jockey Darren Gauci overcame a slow start on the Peter Morgan-trained I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) in the Sir John Monash Stakes (Listed, 1100m), powering through to take the lead and then hold on to beat Gran Sasso (Dehere) and Group 1 winner Orange County (Volksraad).
It was the second stakes success of I Am Invincible’s career and it came after his brave second to Takeover Target (Celtic Swing) in the Goodwood Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m). In the aftermath of his Monash win, Morgan outlined his lofty plans.
“America could be a possibility later in the year, I think if he can go over there and win a race. It will make him as a stallion,” Morgan said at the time.
“The Breeders’ Cup Sprint on turf, around the turns, would suit him real well.”
The American trip never materialised, but what eventuated instead was a stud career at Yarraman Park which has broken record after record over the past 13 years. Set to be crowned Australia’s champion stallion for the second time this season, I Am Invincible has become a commercial powerhouse, unparalleled in Australian bloodstock.
At the most recent count, he has produced 824 winners, 96 at stakes level, including the 2018 Sir John Monash Stakes winner Voodoo Lad, who is also one of his 14 Group 1 winners. His yearling progeny have sold for a total of $350 million, of which $62 million was achieved in 2023 alone, a record for any Australian stallion in a single year.
‘Vinnie’ features regularly in this column, and he is a favourite for a very good reason. Whether you are quoting his progeny records on the track or in the sale ring, or outlining his rise from an $11,000 opening fee to become the premier commercial stallion in Australia, he makes for good reading by the numbers.
But he is not the only future successful stallion to feature on the honour roll of the Monash, which was known as the Moondah Plate/Stakes until 1998.
Winners of the race in the 1970s and 80s include Family Of Man (Lots Of Man), King Delamere (Balmerino) and Congressman (Ksar), all of whom would be stakes producers at stud as well as quality horses on the track.
Prince Salieri (Salieri), the dual Group 1 winner who ran fourth and an unlucky sixth respectively in the 1991 and 1992 editions of the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m), won the Moondah Plate (Listed, 1200m) in 1991. He would retire to Ardsley Stud in New Zealand, from where he would produce 46 winners, including three at stakes level.
Among them was the Group 1 winner She’s A Meanie, who features within the damline of active stallions Love Conquers All (Mossman), Lean Mean Machine (Zoustar) and Hitotsu (Maurice).
Stud record of selected winners of the Sir John Monash/Moondah Stakes:
| Horse | Year Won | Runners | Winners | SW | G1w |
| Family Of Man | 1977 | 234 | 128 | 6 | 1 |
| King Delamere | 1984 | 153 | 79 | 4 | 0 |
| Congressman | 1988 | 50 | 22 | 0 | 0 |
| Prince Salieri | 1991 | 87 | 46 | 3 | 1 |
| Sequalo | 1994 | 1062 | 746 | 20 | 2 |
| Regal Shot | 2001 | 181 | 87 | 0 | 0 |
| I Am Invincible | 2009 | 1037 | 824 | 96 | 14 |
| Reward For Effort | 2010 | 639 | 407 | 11 | 0 |
| Lord Of The Sky | 2014 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Supido | 2017 | 58 | 27 | 2 | 0 |
The 1994 edition of the Moondah Stakes (Listed, 1000m), run at Caulfield, was taken out by the Charlie Waymouth-trained Sequalo (Rustic Amber), a progressive sprinter who would make a considerable mark from the breeding barn. That win was his sixth from just eight starts and set the scene for a spring in which he would win both the Moir Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m) – in track record time – and the Linlithgow Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m).
At the end of his 40-start racetrack career, which featured six stakes wins and three Group 1 placings, Sequalo was acquired by Queensland’s Lyndhurst Stud Farm from where he created a significant legacy.
Over an 18-year stud career, Sequalo would produce 746 winners, 20 of them at stakes level. There were two Group 1 winners among that collection; Spirit Of Boom, now a prolific Queensland sire in his own right at Eureka Stud, and Star Shiraz.
His influence extends to his role as a broodmare sire, with his daughters having produced 278 winners, including the stakes winner In His Stride (Rothesay).
Sequalo raced in a golden era of sprinting talent and filling the three placings behind him in that 1994 Moondah Stakes were future stallions Keltrice (Kenmare), King Marauding (Marauding) and Alannon (Noalcoholic). Keltrice sired 348 winners, including 11 stakes winners; King Marauding’s short-lived stud career featured a stakes winner, while the star among Alannon’s progeny was the legendary sprinter Falvelon.
With the race dominated by geldings in the 1990s and 2000s, only one winner of the race between Sequalo in 1994 and I Am Invincible in 2009, would progress to stud. That was 2001 victor Regal Shot (Clay Hero), who stood at Monomeith Stud and produced 87 winners.
But since Vinnie’s success, there have been several horses who would progress to the stallion barn after winning the feature Caulfield winter sprint, including the 2010 winner Reward For Effort (Exceed And Excel).
Reward For Effort, a winner of the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) as a two-year-old, was having his first start in 15 months in the Sir John Monash Stakes, having injured a suspensory ligament. He put on a powerful front-running display to confirm his considerable talent remained intact.
His career at Chatswood Stud saw him produce 407 winners, including 11 stakes winners, before his death in 2021.
In 2014, the race was upgraded to Group 3 status and gave promising three-year-old sprinter Lord Of The Sky (Danerich) the first of his three stakes wins. His subsequent stud career at Kingstar Farm has resulted in a trio of winners from two crops, including the stakes-placed Ballon D’Or and recent impressive Flemington winner Rain Lord, who runs at Caulfield on Saturday in the race prior to the Monash.
Supido (Sebring) is another future stallion to break his stakes duck in the Sir John Monash, winning the race in 2017. The Mick Kent-trained sprinter subsequently graduated to Widden Stud and has a very creditable 27 winners from his first two crops, including Listed winner and Group 1 placegetter Buenos Noches and Listed winner What You Need.
Saturday’s renewal of the Sir John Monash Stakes has three horses who could potentially go on to stallion careers, with the four-year-old entires Ingratiating (Frosted) and General Beau (Brazen Beau) joined by the three-year-old colt Sweet Ride (Deep Field).
The field also features five mares, among them the first two home in last year’s race, Mileva (Headwater) and Bless Her (Street Boss). The Phillip Stokes-trained Mileva is one of only four fillies or mares to win the race since 2000 and is bidding to become the first back-to-back winner since Super Elegant (Mister C) in 2004 and 2005.
Winners of the Sir John Monash Stakes since 2000
| Year | Winner | Age | Sex |
| 2022 | Mileva | 4 | M |
| 2021 | Red Can Man | 4 | G |
| 2020 | Jungle Edge | 9 | G |
| 2019 | Oak Door | 5 | G |
| 2018 | Voodoo Lad | 6 | G |
| 2017 | Supido | 5 | H |
| 2016 | Wild Rain | 4 | M |
| 2015 | Miss Promiscuity | 4 | M |
| 2014 | Lord Of The Sky | 3 | C |
| 2013 | Pago Rock | 5 | G |
| 2012 | Platelet | 3 | F |
| 2011 | Secret Flyer | 7 | G |
| 2010 | Reward For Effort | 3 | C |
| 2009 | I Am Invincible | 4 | H |
| 2008 | Tesbury Jack | 5 | G |
| 2007 | Lucky Secret | 3 | G |
| 2006 | Sassbee | 5 | G |
| 2005 | Super Elegant | 7 | G |
| 2004 | Super Elegant | 6 | G |
| 2003 | Dantana | 3 | G |
| 2002 | Rubitano | 4 | G |
| 2001 | Regal Shot | 3 | C |
| 2000 | Honour The Name | 3 | G |