‘The whole farm’s over the moon with the way he’s gone’ - I Am Invincible wins third Australian sires’ title

I Am Invincible will officially win his third Australian champion sires’ title on Wednesday evening, while long-time New Zealand breed-shaper Savabeel will claim his home country’s stallion premiership for a record ninth time.

The Yarraman Park Stud stalwart I Am Invincible, who has risen from relative obscurity to top the sire charts, joins Redoute’s Choice as a modern-day champion with three sires’ titles since the turn of the century.

Redoute’s Choice’s Arrowfield Stud-based son Snitzel, who will enter his 19th season at stud on September 1, won four consecutive Australian general sires’ premierships from 2016-17 through to 2019-20.

The recently retired Imperatriz contributed A$5.26 million towards I Am Invincible’s record breaking tally of more than A$32m (£16.3m/€19.4m) on progeny earnings since August 1, 2023, but she wasn’t alone.

There were 17 other stakes winners (two of them in New Zealand, including Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes-winning colt Move To Strike) for the almost completed season including exciting Group 3 winner Estriella and high-class colt Bodyguard.

Yarraman Park’s Arthur Mitchell marvelled at the dominance of the son of Invincible Spirit this season and believes the champion sire can continue on his winning run in 2024-25, when he will stand for a fee of A$302,500, up from A$275,000 last year.

“The whole farm’s over the moon with the way he’s gone again,” said Mitchell. “I do believe that, because he’s well down on the two-year-old list, a lot of them have been looked after and given a bit more time, so hopefully that’ll pay off in their three-year-old and older careers.”

Savabeel, meanwhile, was dethroned last season by Rich Hill Stud’s rising star Proisir, but his progeny, led by brilliant three-year-old filly Orchestral, dominated New Zealand racing in 2023-24 by winning more than NZ$4.8m (£2.2m/€2.6m), a new benchmark illustrating both the stallion’s potency and boost in local prize-money through the investment of global wagering giant Entain.

Savabeel: has set a new benchmark this seasonCredit: Waikato Stud

This October it will be 20 years since a then three-year-old Savabeel won the Cox Plate, a victory that catapulted him towards the commercial sire glory he has achieved under the helm of Waikato studmasters’ Garry and Mark Chittick.

In the almost two decades since, Mark Chittick has run out of superlatives to describe the impact Savabeel has had on him, his family, fellow breeders and the wider New Zealand thoroughbred industry.

As Chittick has started to reflect on the remarkable deeds of the nine-time champion stallion, who sired 15 individual stakes winners for the season including Australian Group 1 scorers Orchestral, Atishu, I Wish I Win and Skew Wiff, it was the words of Curraghmore’s Gordon Cunningham that recently hit home.

He recalled: “A great mate and great horseman Gordon Cunningham rang last year to report one of his mares was in foal and he said, ‘Bloody good on you guys for the management of him because it’s outstanding for a 22-year-old horse serving well over 100 mares and getting them in foal like he does'.

“I didn’t take it lightly and said I really appreciated it, but he said, ‘I really mean that because there’s a whole lot of horses that get put under a lot of pressure these days’.

“We've managed him as best we can and that’s why he’s still going strong and is still healthy.”

Savabeel has sired 145 individual stakes winners and is closing in on the feats of his sire Zabeel, who sired 166 black-type winners. Savabeel’s grandsire Sir Tristram sired 130 stakes winners under the management of the late, great studmaster Sir Patrick Hogan, who also oversaw Zabeel’s stud career at Cambridge Stud.

“When I say Savabeel is a once-in-a-lifetime horse, I hope he’s not,” said Chittick. 

“We’ve had some champion stallions in the past and hopefully we’ll get them in the future, but once you’re getting up and around the figures of his father Zabeel and Sir Tristram, you certainly know you’re in a different echelon to most.”

Savabeel will stand the upcoming season at an unchanged fee of NZ$100,000.

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