Yarraman Park, Major Mitchell, and a sensation named Vinnie...

Two of the great characters in breeding - the Mitchell brothers - have struck gold through the phenomenal sire I Am Invincible.

Yarraman's superstar stallion I Am Invincible

Trevor Marshallsea

When the queen of Australian racing, Winx (Street Cry {Ire}), steps off her float at Yarraman Park for her first mating this spring, it will mark another landmark chapter in a stellar rise for the Hunter Valley stud led by one increasingly astounding sire – I Am Invincible.

Season by season, the son of Irish stallion Invincible Spirit (Ire) continues to eclipse all expectations put upon him when Yarraman purchased a half share in him in 2010. As a result, the family-owned Scone stud – run by brothers Arthur and Harry Mitchell – has evolved from a boutique operation little more than a decade ago to become a major player.

Known around the farm as Vinnie, the rising 15-year-old owns a new Australian record for stakes-winners sired. His total of 28 – for 40 stakes wins – is two more than the old record shared by Danehill and Snitzel, and easily ahead of the season’s second-best, Not A Single Doubt (15 and 23).

I Am Invincible was also crowned the season’s champion two-year-old sire by earnings – a remarkable feat considering it comes without winning the Golden Slipper or the Blue Diamond Stakes, also leading that table one winners and wins, with 27 and 36.

“I Am Invincible has been a game-changer, to say the least. It’s what every mid-range stud dreams about. You’ve got to pinch yourself when you get up every day, to think you’ve actually got a stallion this good” - Arthur Mitchell

He was the leading overall sire by winners and wins – with 184 and 301, ahead of Snitzel’s 180 and 290 – and finished second on the general sires list (on progeny earnings) by $6.5 million. If not for the $8.6 million earned by Snitzel’s sons Redzel and Trapeze Artist in filling the first two placings in The Everest, I Am Invincible would be Australia’s champion sire.

It’s almost unbelievable stuff for the easy-going, affable Mitchell brothers, who are seeing decades of hard work rewarded at their century-old property.

“I Am Invincible has been a game-changer, to say the least,” says Arthur, at 62 five years Harry’s senior. “It’s what every mid-range stud dreams about. You’ve got to pinch yourself when you get up every day, to think you’ve actually got a stallion this good.”

Yarraman’s evolution is a fascinating tale in itself. Established as an offshoot of the historic Widden Stud early last century, it gained early fame through the deeds of the champion Eurythmic, bred and born on the farm in 1916. Yarraman was later turned into a dairy operation, before coming into the possession of champion jockey George Moore. A new direction came onto the horizon in 1968, when a former Norfolk farmer, Major James “J.D.” Mitchell, happened by.

A former World War II British army officer, and an avid owner of flat and jumps racehorses, Major Mitchell set out in 1966 on an exploratory trip to Australia with good friend and bloodstock agent George Blackwell. The pair eventually stayed a few nights at a property owned by Blackwell’s friend, Moore.

“Dad liked it so much he told George that if he ever wanted to sell up, could he give him first refusal,” Arthur Mitchell says.

Those dominoes fell into place just two years later, with Major Mitchell, wife Bunty, and their three young sons moving in.

“I was sent off to board at Geelong Grammar,” says Arthur, who was 13 at the time. “Because Prince Charles had stayed there it was the only Australian school anyone in England had heard of. But then our parents realised how bloody far away Geelong was, so they sent my brothers Bill and Harry to Cranbrook in Sydney instead.”

Once schooling was done, the brothers travelled to gain experience. Arthur worked at the Irish National Stud in Kildare, at the famous Haras d'Étréham stud in France, and in South Africa, as well as completing a stint with English trainer Dick Hern, who’d earlier trained the great Brigadier Gerard. Harry followed a similar path.

While breeding seemed to lie in that pair’s future, middle brother Bill went to England and the U.S. for education in what would become a training career. He later began training at Warwick Farm, before relocating to Randwick in the late 1980s. With him was a brash young stable foreman named Peter Moody. Harry Mitchell also joined the senior staff.

“It was great experience for me. I’d always been into the stud side of the game, but with Bill I learned about things like joints and legs that a lot of stud staff aren’t good at,” says Harry, who worked with his brother’s stable stars From The Planet (Ideal Planet), Livistona Lane (Belmont Bay {Ire}), and Stylish Century (Double Century).

“It wasn’t a very commercial farm. There were always a couple of stallions and a few mares, but it was always a run of the mill sort of stud” - Arthur Mitchell

By the mid-90s, after their mother had passed away, and with their father eyeing a move to Sydney, Arthur and Harry were back at Yarraman.

The stud had made a living, through sires J.D. Mitchell acquired from the 1970s onward, headed by European imports Straight Master, Sirocco, Picollino and Desert Style, and through Australian sires such as Pilgrim’s Way and Beaches. But Arthur and Harry felt the stud needed work to be built into a stronger operation. The going initially was reasonably tough.

“It wasn’t a very commercial farm,” Arthur says. “There were always a couple of stallions and a few mares, but it was always a run of the mill sort of stud.”

“We wanted to build it up, build our broodmare band up, but there wasn’t a lot of money around,” recalls Harry. “When I came back from Sydney I built a track here and did all the pre-training for Bill and other trainers, and that helped pay the wages for a few years. But it was fairly tough going.”

A turning point came with the acquisition of top American sprinter Forest Glow in the late 1990s. While described as “an okay stallion” by Arthur, Forest Glow more importantly introduced the Mitchells to American owner Ken Jones. The relationship would lead to a huge boost in Yarraman’s profile, when Jones’ Golden Slipper winner Catbird retired to the stud.

“Catbird was a pretty good stallion,” Arthur says. “Now we started to get more commercial. We were selling better yearlings and achieving better results.”

Catbird, Australia’s leading first season sire in 2003-04, became a consistent producer of stakes winners, siring 25 through his first three seasons. He was sadly lost, in 2007, after suffering laminitis, but life-changing success for Yarraman was just ahead.

“I’d been following this sprinter I Am Invincible for a while,” says Arthur, “mostly because I knew Invincible Spirit was starting to hit his straps in Europe.”

“As soon as he came out of the box we said, ‘Yep, we’re going to stand this horse’. He was a fast horse, but he was just so good looking. He was then and is now, a magnificent horse" - Arthur Mitchell

Plagued by troublesome feet, I Am Invincible won five of 13 career starts, two at stakes level, while also running a fighting length second to the outstanding Takeover Target in the Goodwood at Morphettville in 2009.

The following year a meeting in Sydney was arranged, with the help of bloodstock identities John Holloway and Andrew Reichard. A deal was struck that Yarraman would buy half of the horse from owner Ray Gall for around $500,000, pending an inspection at trainer Peter Morgan’s stables, near Melbourne.

“As soon as he came out of the box we said, ‘Yep, we’re going to stand this horse’,” Arthur says. “He was a fast horse, but he was just so good looking. He was then and is now, a magnificent horse.

“So really it was his looks that sold him to us, and we knew a bit more than some who’d turned him down because we followed European racing. We were never dreaming of what’s happened. We were dreaming of having a nice mid-range stallion who could stand at $15,000 or $20,000 and pay his way.”

The rest has been incredible history. Standing at first for a mere $11,000, I Am Invincible became Australia’s leading first season sire in 2013-14, his progeny’s earnings of $1.16 million doubling his nearest rival, Denman.

From 29th spot on the general sires list the following year he has exploded up the charts, finishing fourth in 2016-17, and second for the past two seasons. His progeny include Group 1 winners, such as Voodoo Lad, Viddora, Invincibella, Brazen Beau, Oohood and Hellbent, who will stand alongside him from this season, as well as the flying Magic Millions two-year-old winner, Houtzen.

That initially modest service has, you might say, ballooned. He will stand in 2019-20 for $247,000, the highest price in the country. Considering he covered 223 mares in 2018-19, these are lucrative times indeed for the former boutique stud, a situation that helps salve the disappointment of losing promising sire Hinchinbrook last year.

As he has risen up the sires’ rankings, so too has I Am Invincible been matched with better quality mares. Black Caviar has been put to him twice, and now has what Harry Mitchell calls a “very nice” weanling to him.

Soon it will be Winx’s turn. Hopes are high that while the progeny of three great modern mares – Sunline, Makybe Diva, Black Caviar – have set no worlds on fire, it may be different this time.

“Winx will be interesting,” Harry says. “She’s a pretty well-bred mare herself [by Street Cry (Ire) out of Vegas Showgirl (NZ)]. Plus all the good I Am Invincibles have a good turn of foot, and Winx had a good turn of foot.

“A lot of the really great mares haven’t had success as broodmares. It’s possibly because they carry more testosterone than other mares. Sunline, who didn’t get much of a chance because she died quite young, was a big, butch, colty-looking mare. Winx doesn’t have that. She’s not a big heavy mare.

“So, genetically and physically you could breed a superstar. It’s going to happen one day. One of these champion mares is going to be a champion broodmare. Let’s hope it happens with Winx.”

TDN

August, 2019