Mitchells convinced by Invincible

I was watching Bred To Win on Sky Channel – can’t remember if it was on 1, 2 or World – on Sunday night when the imposing image of Yarraman Park’s new stallion I Am Invincible filled the wide screen.

It’s not hard to see what impressed Yarraman Park’s owners, the brothers Harry and Arthur Mitchell, about this horse when they flew to Melbourne in late February to inspect him at Peter Morgan’s Whittlesea stables.

I Am Invincible (b h 2004, Invincible Spirit (IRE)-Cannarelle, by Canny Lad) will stand at Yarraman Park, Scone, for a fee of $11, 000 (inc. GST). I Am Invincible retired the winner of five races from only 13 starts from a career that started impressively as a 2YO, faltered when he was injured as a 3YO, but emerged under Morgan’s care to be one of the top sprinters in Australia in the past 12 months.

I Am Invincible showed blistering speed to win the Group 3 McKay Stakes (1100m, Morphettville) in March 2009. Two weeks later, he produced a career-best second behind the champion Takeover Target in the Group 1 The Goodwood (1200m, Morphettville), after kicking clear on the bend and putting the champ under pressure.

I Am Invincible returned to Melbourne in July to beat Gran Sasso and Orange County in the Listed Sir John Monash Stakes (wfa, 1100m, Caulfield), but injuries restricted him to only two more unplaced spring starts before Morgan was forced to abandon plans to race the horse on. You can only wonder how good this horse could have been had he been sound. Even Morgan still scratches his head at what he may have achieved.

Harry Mitchell told me at the Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale in March that he and his brother were taken by the horse when Morgan paraded him.

“We had heard he was a good looking horse, but I didn’t expect him to be such an impressive animal,” he said.

“He is a handsome horse with plenty of leg (the horse stands 16.1hh), bone and style. He’s the type of horse that will throw the ideal foals to sell through the ring.”

The Mitchells are not big gamblers when it comes to the breeding game. They are calculating and clever, and highly respected – they also know their place in the scheme of things, which is why they are happy to back their judgment on a horse like I Am Invincible and leave the higher profile, more expensive stallions to the likes of Arrowfield, Coolmore and Darley.

The Mitchells also have had a strong relationship with I Am Invincible’s owner/breeder Ron Gall, so it was a good fit all round.

Yarraman Park’s strong client base, especially of broodmare owners in the $10,000- $20,000 stallion fee price bracket, will ensure that I Am Invincible will get a positive start to his career.

The Mitchells have been very successful with a similar type of stallion in Magic Albert (ch h 1998, Zeditave-Sally Lou, by Salieri (USA)), who last year covered 125 mares at a fee of $13,250 (inc. GST). Magic Albert has sired eight stakes winners from his first five crops, and he has four big crops (oldest 2YOs) that will race for him.

I Am Invincible’s sire Invincible Spirit, a son of Danzig’s champion sire-son Green Desert (USA), has been something of a revelation in Europe where he is regarded as a top-tier stallion. He stood in Australia at Chatswood Stud, Seymour, from 2003, delivering crops of only 31, 56 and 48 foals before the success of his progeny saw his support grow dramatically for him to cover 153 mares in 2006 – he hasn’t been back since due to his demand in Europe, where his winners include the 2007 Group 1 French Derby winner Lawman, the 2009 Group 1 July Cup winner Fleeting Spirit and the 2009 Group 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Vale Of York.

Invincible Spirit’s final Australian crop has already produced the Group 1 AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Yosei (b f 2007, ex-Fuji Fairy, by Fuji Kiseki (JPN)).

Interestingly, I Am Invincible comes from a Danzig-Canny Lad cross that also has produced the champion sire Redoute’s Choice (b h 1996, Danehill (USA)-Shantha’s Choice, by Canny Lad), albeit reaching Danzig one remove further back and through a different sire line.

\Mares by Danzero, Catbird and Elvstroem, offer a similar Danzig-Star Kingdom cross that can be replicated by mating with I Am Invincible. But the shrewd Yarraman boys have done their home work, as there is hardly a mare in Australia that wouldn’t be a good match with this handsome young horse.