Run The Numbers – The original Invincible
When Invincible Spirit arrived at Victoria’s Chatswood Stud in 2003, it was fair to say he had a fair bit to do to convince Australian breeders that he was worth sending a mare to.
Standing at $13,200, he was the cheapest of the shuttle stallions to debut in Australia that year. As a measure of comparison, Rock Of Gibraltar, the most expensive, debuted at $132,000.
Invincible Spirit attracted just 48 mares that first year, for a foal crop of 31, hardly a roaring return for the one-time Group 1-winning son of Green Desert. Significantly, the eighth of those 31 foals born in the following spring was a colt out of the Canny Lad mare Cannarelle.
By the time that colt, named I Am Invincible, made his debut as a two-year-old, his sire’s virtues of a stallion were already becoming apparent in the northern hemisphere. Invincible Spirit sired a record 35 first-crop two-year-old winners in 2006 to become Europe’s champion first-season sire.
His book in Australia that year exploded to 153, and it soon became apparent that he was too valuable to return Down Under. While his fee had risen to 35,000 euros in Ireland, he had stood for $11,000 in his final season at Chatswood.
Invincible Spirit’s four Australian crops yielded 131 winners from 197 starters, among them eight stakes winners, the best of which was triple Group 1 winner Yosei.
It has been 17 years since Invincible Spirit left Australia, but on Saturday his sireline descendants won the $2 million Inglis Millennium, both editions of the Blue Diamond Preludes, the Eskimo Prince Stakes, the Peter Le Grand Stakes, and the Cyril Flower Stakes at Bunbury.
I Am Invincible was responsible for four of those stakes winners, two of them at Caulfield via Bodyguard and Estriella, one at Randwick, Caballus, and Real Danger at Bunbury.
“He’s a very well-bred colt & he’s a very good type.”
Bodyguard did his Blue Diamond Stakes credentials no harm on Saturday #TheWrap pic.twitter.com/ZqvPAjQQlB
— Racing.com (@Racing) February 10, 2024
The Millennium winner Fully Lit is by I Am Invincible’s son, fellow Yarraman Park resident, Hellbent, while at Caulfield Invincible Spirit’s son Royal Meeting marked a Group 2 victory through another stakes win from his impressive first-crop daughter Hayasugi.
I Am Invincible had a remarkable seven winners in total across Australia on Saturday, while fellow sons of Invincible Spirit, Shalaa, two, and Cable Bay, one, and Vinnie’s son Super One, one. That’s 13 winners in all from the Invincible Spirit sireline in Australia on a single day.
I Am Invincible’s extraordinary statistics have been well documented. His is a lock for a third straight Australian Sires’ Championship with more than $22.7 million in progeny earning already in 2023/24. That would be enough for him all but three of the best seasons in history and we are only just over halfway through the campaign.
CABALLUS wins Eskimo Prince Stakes!
The promising @BBakerRacing colt sits wide under @JoshuaParr8 and proves too strong in the Group 3 at Randwick, downing Makarena with Encap in third. @tabcomau pic.twitter.com/VoH4D9zw5S
— Racing NSW (@racing_nsw) February 10, 2024
He now has 105 stakes winners, 13 of them this season, while the four black-type winners he had on Saturday are a personal record for a single day.
As well as Bodyguard winning the Blue Diamond Colts Prelude, he had two of his two-year-olds sons place in the Listed Lonhro Plate. He was also the broodmare sire of the runners-up in two Group 2 races at Caulfield.
Royal Meeting, thanks to now-dual Group winner Hayasugi, is the latest of Invincible Spirit’s sons to produce a stakes winner, taking the total to 21 globally. He stood for one season at Aquis’ short-lived Victorian base before moving to Leneva Park.
Hellbent’s virtues are already well known with three crops at the track. He is the leading third-season sire in Australia, ahead of Russian Revolution, and he looks to have a genuine top-quality two-year-old in Fully Lit, who will try to become his second Group 1 winner after Magic Time, later in the autumn.
The @GaiWaterhouse1-Bott 2YOs are unstoppable!
Fully Lit wins the $2 million @inglis_sales Millennium from a tricky draw in tough fashion. pic.twitter.com/W6Hkr8qs0c
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) February 10, 2024
All in all, there are 30 sire descendants of Invincible Spirit globally who have produced stakes winners. Of those 30, 18 have stood in Australia or New Zealand at some point.
The 2023 Australian breeding season saw 15 of his descendants active at stud.
Remarkably, Invincible Spirit is still active at the Irish National Stud 27 years of age, the oldest stallion on a roster in Ireland. He has produced 149 stakes winners from 1898 runners, among them 23 Group 1 winners.
His consistency is underlined by the fact he has produced stakes winners from each of the 18 northern hemisphere crops he has had to the track, including last year’s two-year-old stakes winners Ghostwriter and Kylian.
Stakes-producing sire descendants of Invincible Spirit
*Statistics courtesy of Arion.co.nz
Author
Related Articles
Waikato looks forward with 2026 stallion roster missing its $70 million sire Super Seth
Savabeel is closing in on the stakes winner record of his own sire Zabeel as Waikato Stud looks to the future with first-season stallion Return To Conquer.
‘She just wasn’t up to it’ – $10 million Winx filly’s career over before it begins
Quinceanera, the $10 million daughter of Winx, has been retired without racing, with early setbacks prompting connections to prioritise her long-term broodmare value over an uncertain track career.
Koh to offer top two-year-old Chayan at Chairman’s Sale
Inglis has added two high-profile supplementary entries to its Chairman’s Sale catalogue including Group 2-winning juvenile Chayan.