By Kit Gow | The Thoroughbred Report – 9 April 2025
Vinrock’s (I Am Invincible) victory at the weekend in the G1 Sires’ Produce Stakes was hailed as historic on two levels; it was the first time in 44 years that a horse has achieved the double of winning the G2 VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes before taking the New South Wales equivalent, and it was the first juvenile Group 1 winner for Champion Sire I Am Invincible on Australian shores.
In fact, it was only his second-ever juvenile Group 1 winner, after Move To Strike’s victory in the G1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes in New Zealand last year.
It has been a key part to I Am Invincible’s rise to prominence that he has always been good at upgrading the mares that visit him. His offspring are not usually appreciated as electric 2-year-olds, at least as loudly as other champion stallions in the country. But when we stand back, what do the figures actually say? Has it just been a waiting game to clinch these important juvenile Group 1 victories?
By the numbers
“It’s well documented that I Am Invincible is a great sire,” Yarraman Park Stud’s Harry Mitchell said when asked to discuss his resident champion. “He’s been Champion Sire three times now and runner-up four or five times as well. For whatever reason, he hadn’t won a big Group 1 in Australia with a 2-year-old yet.”
The appeal of I Am Invincible has long been that his horses are quick off the mark, and continue to get better.
“He gets good 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds. You get so many good horses that race on at four, five, and six. King of Sparta has been a great example of that. I mean, he’s won three and a half million. He’s a 6-year-old now and he’s ready to go to Brisbane for another carnival.”
When we take a look at the stallion’s record with 2-year-olds, it may come as a surprise to those who have only considered him a good juvenile sire in the last few years; of his first crop, born in 2011, he had 17 juvenile winners from 48 to run with five stakes winners.
That crop produced two more stakes winners as they matured, but it is quite something for the majority of his stakes winners to tick that box first as juveniles. In fact, 52 of his 117 stakes winners achieved their first stakes win in their juvenile year.
|
Birth Year
|
Runners
|
Winners
|
Stakes winners
|
SW to winners
|
SW to runners
|
Service Fee
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 48 | 17 | 5 | 29.4 | 10.4 | $11,000 |
| 2012 | 44 | 22 | 2 | 9.1 | 4.5 | $11,000 |
| 2013 | 53 | 15 | 2 | 13.3 | 3.8 | $11,000 |
| 2014 | 61 | 29 | 3 | 10.3 | 4.9 | $11,000 |
| 2015 | 63 | 26 | 4 | 15.3 | 6.3 | $27,500 |
| 2016 | 72 | 29 | 8 | 27.6 | 11.1 | $55,000 |
| 2017 | 62 | 24 | 5 | 20.8 | 8.1 | $55,000 |
| 2018 | 62 | 21 | 5 | 23.8 | 8.1 | $110,000 |
| 2019 | 62 | 17 | 5 | 29.4 | 8.1 | $192,500 |
| 2020 | 54 | 22 | 6 | 27.3 | 11.1 | $247,500 |
| 2021 | 47 | 10 | 2 | 20.0 | 4.3 | $209,000 |
| 2022 | 29 | 6 | 5 | 83.3 | 17.2 | $220,000 |
Table: I Am Invincible’s juvenile winners statistics organised by foal crop
One of I Am Invincible’s best years for winners came with his fourth crop with 29 winners from 61 runners, although this crop recorded only three juvenile stakes winners. His sixth crop, conceived when his first crop would be turning five, would be his best yet with eight juvenile stakes winners, and his percentage of juvenile stakes winners to winners hasn’t sunk beneath a 20 per cent strike rate since.
His 2021 crop – his smallest by foal number since his fee rose above his introductory price of $11,000 (inc GST) in 2014 – only yielded two juvenile stakes winners, but one of them was Move To Strike and the other was highly talented juvenile Bodyguard, who was unbeaten in two starts at stakes level before a fourth placing in the G2 Todman Stakes.
Two more stakes winners have joined their number in the following season; Listed winners Anode and Enriched. It was the crop that has to date averaged the highest at the sales, with an average yearling price of $675,489.
Whether this has been affected by the tumultuous years that this crop was conceived and foaled in would be difficult to ascertain without individually examining the 136 mares that delivered live foals by I Am Invincible that year.
While many people remember the particularly wet winter and spring in 2022 that yielded a strange breeding season – of which I Am Invincible was also not immune, posting a career lowest fertility rate of 72.5 per cent – the year before was also very wet, with unprecedented rainfall in the Hunter Valley late in the spring.
Add into that the different shape that the 2020 breeding season undertook in the midst of a pandemic, there may be a possible underlying trend to why that particular set of juveniles weren’t as quick off the mark as usual. Or it may be that they simply will get better with time.
This current crop of 2-year-olds is on track to be one of his best yet, with five of his six winners being stakes winners, from just 29 to the track so far. In fact, I Am Invincible posted a stakes double on Saturday, with his daughter Blue Hotel taking out the Listed Dequetteville Stakes at Morphettville.
The near misses
There’s nothing that has stood in I Am Invincible’s way to prevent a Group 1 winner before, to Mitchell, except the luck of racing.
“Brazen Beau was incredibly unlucky in the first year to not get a Group 1, but then he came out in the Coolmore (Stud Stakes) and smashed them,” he said. Winner of the G2 Champagne Classic as a juvenile, Brazen Beau was narrowly defeated – by a 0.2l margin – in the G1 JJ Atkins Stakes at his final 2-year-old start by Almalad (Al Maher). “They’re good 2-year-olds, but they continue to get better with age as well.”
The G1 Golden Slipper Stakes continues to be elusive, but that isn’t to say that I Am Invincible’s offspring haven’t gone close on numerous occasions. Bodyguard represented him last year but finished at the tail of the field.
“The Golden Slipper is often on a wet track, and they (I Am Invincible offspring) don’t do well on the wet,” Mitchell said. “Oohood nearly should have won, and that was on the wet. Loving Gabby(‘s Slipper) was on the wet.”
The firmest Slipper over the last few years was the 2023 edition won by Shinzo – run on a Good 3 – where I Am Invincible’s newly minted sire son King’s Gambit ran third.
“A few of them handle it, but most of them like to be on top of the ground. They’ve got such good action.”
|
Birth Year
|
2YO runners
|
2YO stakes performers
|
2YO SP to runners
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 48 | 8 | 16.7 |
| 2012 | 44 | 6 | 13.6 |
| 2013 | 53 | 3 | 5.7 |
| 2014 | 61 | 4 | 6.6 |
| 2015 | 63 | 9 | 14.3 |
| 2016 | 72 | 15 | 20.8 |
| 2017 | 62 | 12 | 19.4 |
| 2018 | 62 | 9 | 14.5 |
| 2019 | 62 | 10 | 16.1 |
| 2020 | 54 | 12 | 22.2 |
| 2021 | 47 | 7 | 14.9 |
| 2022 | 29 | 9 | 31 |
Table: I Am Invincible’s juvenile stakes performance statistics organised by foal crop
Since 2016, his juveniles have hovered around the 20 per cent mark for stakes performers to runners, and last dipped below 14 per cent in 2014 – a foal crop that would have been conceived when his first crop had just turned two, which is traditionally a difficult season as the initial hype has worn off and breeders are waiting to see how his offspring performed on the track before placing their bets.
Across the board, his 2016 crop was a particularly vintage year for stakes horses. Just over 20 per cent of his juveniles from that crop achieved black-type, with that strike rate rising to 25.2 per cent stakes horses to runners when looking at the crop as they age. Fourth-placed in the Slipper, Loving Gaby was his only Group 1 winner from that crop, but she is joined by 18 other stakes winners and a further 13 stakes performers.
|
Birth Year
|
Total Runners
|
Total Stakes performers
|
SP to runners
|
Percentage started as 2YO
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 80 | 13 | 16.3 | 60 |
| 2012 | 86 | 15 | 17.4 | 51.1 |
| 2013 | 93 | 11 | 11.8 | 57 |
| 2014 | 105 | 14 | 13.3 | 58.1 |
| 2015 | 126 | 16 | 12.7 | 50 |
| 2016 | 123 | 31 | 25.2 | 58.5 |
| 2017 | 126 | 25 | 19.8 | 49.2 |
| 2018 | 129 | 22 | 17.1 | 48.1 |
| 2019 | 130 | 21 | 16.2 | 47.7 |
| 2020 | 122 | 22 | 18 | 44.3 |
| 2021 | 92 | 13 | 14.1 | 51.1 |
Table: I Am Invincible’s stakes performance statistics organised by foal crop
The 2018/19 racing, when these horses were juveniles, has been his best to date for stakes performances; he has 29 stakes winners of 42 stakes races. It is no surprise that I Am Invincible’s fee jumped to $247,500 (inc GST) for the 2019 season – an increase of $55,000 (inc GST) from the previous year.
Not a one-trick pony
Conceived for $220,000 (inc GST), Vinrock was a steal at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale for trainer Matt Laurie and Wilannah Park Bloodstock, who paid just $300,000 for the colt, far below the average for last year of $581,096 (with a median of $500,000).
In addition to his rare double, it is unusual that he didn’t come through the Slipper; the last Sires’ winner to not run in a Golden Slipper was El Dorado Dreaming (Ilovethiscity) in 2018, who had her first punt at stakes level and also broke her maiden in the Group 1 event.
Vinrock is a product of his dam, the G2 Matriarch Stakes winner Girl Gone Rockin’ (Redoute’s Choice), visiting I Am Invincible for just the second time. She first visited him in 2016 – the first year that he stood for $55,000 (inc GST) off the back of race track performances such as I Am A Star (NZ) in the G1 Myer Classic and Voodoo Lad’s dual Group 3 wins – but the foal died before making it to a sale. Returning to I Am Invincible in 2021, her owners Rosemont Stud had better luck.
“Vinrock was great,” Mitchell said, having closely watched the Sires’ victory on Saturday. “I just love the tenacity of the horse. Matt Laurie was very confident. (I loved) the way he knuckled down (in the race), and I don’t think he was in the best part of the track.
“I thought it was a fantastic win, and obviously Vinrock is a very valuable proposition going forward. I think he’s a horse that will continue to get better and I think the key to the Vinnies is they can be good 2-year-olds, but they do train on for you. They’re not one trick ponies.”
Following the unbeaten colt’s victory, he has been tipped out in the paddock. An exciting spring awaits – and a likely stallion deal in the meantime. At the time of writing, Vinrock remains one of the few high-performing colts on the track that doesn’t have a stud involved in the ownership group.
The good ones come from anywhere
One thing that occurred to Mitchell is the evolution of how trainers look after their youngstock, particularly highly valuable colts; “I think a lot of the trainers now are being more patient with them because they’re such naturally athletic horses. I think sometimes if you press the button too early, you can get them over racing a little bit.
“So you’ve got to be a bit patient sometimes with the colts, and obviously when colts are expensive, it gets to a stage where people are reluctant to geld them (to improve behaviour).”
Examining what has and hasn’t worked with their champion has only really drawn them to the conclusion that his best can come from anywhere, particularly unusual places.
“It seems to me that they come out of anything,” Mitchell said. “I use Viddora as a great example, she was such a great sprinter and she was out of a mare who won over a mile and a half, who was by Colombia, a grandson of Sir Tristram. There’s no definite trend.
“People will say, ‘oh, that cross won’t work’, and soon as you say that, he goes bang, bang.”
I Am Invincible continues to be the gift that keeps on giving for Yarraman Park. They don’t hand out Champion Sire titles for no reason, and the best is yet to come, with his most expensive crop of foals, conceived for $302,500 (inc GST), just turned weanlings. Mitchell can see further down the track to him becoming a champion broodmare sire as well, given the strength of his progeny.
“He’s got a great temperament, he’s very fertile, and he throws wonderful-looking animals with great athletic ability,” he said. “He was not an expensive horse (as a stallion prospect) and we loved him as a physical.
“We backed him and took the punt, and we obviously had no idea he would be what he is. That’s just a dream come true for us and our family and a lot of the loyal supporters we have had.”
