No, it’s not a misprint. Last season’s Champion Black Type Premiership Stallion, I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit-Cannarelle, by Canny Lad) was already assured by the end of last racing season that his yearlings would be in big demand at the 2024 yearling sales.
That was then, this is now. At the close of 2022’s Flemington Spring Carnival, the Yarraman Park-based sire, who is standing the current breeding season for $302,500, had amassed 106 Black Type points en-route to a final 377-point tally to claim the 2022-23 title. That aggregate accummulation was sufficient to ensure an 81-point buffer, i.e. he won with a 27.36% margin in hand from So You Think (High Chaparral) and record-setting 2021-22 Black Type Champion Stallion Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) who were split by a single point for second and third. And, so, here we.
The cynics could trot out the lies, damn lies and statistics quip. But the facts remain the facts, and the data is what it is. Unlike feature race prizemoney, which can increase or decrease year on year and create a skewed apples and oranges comparison, Black Type Racing’s points structure is fixed.
And, based on what we’re able to assess through that lens, compared to the identical stage in time last year, I Am Invincible’s current 242 seasonal points are sitting at 128.3% higher than his comparable 106 points on Champions Day in 2022-23. It doesn’t mean he is a shoo-in to win the title even though he’s entitled to be odds-on, nor does it mean that if he does he’ll eclipse either his 377 points from last season or even better Snitzel’s massive record of 457.
If, however, he were to match what he achieved from mid November 2022 to the end of July 2023 – he added a further 271 points – I Am Invincible will land on a new record 513 points (242 + 271). What’s possible beyond that is pure speculation but if his imperious daughter Imperatriz (see below) is as dazzling in the autumn as she has been in the spring then who knows?
Copy: Black Type Horseracing
