Aussie ace I Am Invincible has fee increased to match career high of A$247,500

I Am Invincible, who is challenging to win his maiden Australian champion sire title this season, has had his fee set for 2022 by the Mitchell family’s Yarraman Park Stud at $247,500 (approx £140,000/€166,000).

Matching his career-high fee of 2019, the season prior to the onset of the pandemic, the nation’s most commercial stallion I Am Invincible is almost fully booked for the coming season, according to studmaster Arthur Mitchell, in an endorsement for the immense demand for the stallion in the breeding shed and his progeny in the sale ring.

“Most of the big breeders have booked back into him. Obviously if they’re going to use him at that price, they’re going to have pretty decent mares as well,” Mitchell told ANZ Bloodstock News on Tuesday.

“The wonderful thing about I Am Invincible is, on the whole, he gets good types and that helps a lot and we think the fee is reasonable.

“He’s close to fully booked, so it’s already been accepted by the marketplace before we announced it, and it wouldn’t have mattered what fee we stood him at, we would have filled him, but we are just trying to put him at a fair price to give everyone a chance.”

I Am Invincible’s sire son and roster mate Hellbent, a Group 1-winning sprinter whose first crop of two-year-olds include the stakes-placed Gold Pearl winner Miss Hellfire, the stakes-placed Bohemian Daisy and Warby, as well as the promising Hell Hound, will remain at an unchanged fee of A$22,000 this year.

I Am Invincible, himself the sire of 75 stakes winners, has enjoyed another big season to date on both the racetrack and in the sale ring.

As well as the Coolmore syndicate-owned Home Affairs, who is set to campaign at Royal Ascot in June, I Am Invincible has also had his daughters, Oakleigh Plate winner Marabi and the New Zealand dual Group 1 winner Imperatriz, score at the highest level this season.

Home Affairs confirmed his appeal as arguably the nation’s soon-to-be most sought after first-season sire with victories in the Coolmore Stud Stakes and the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes.

His progeny has reached an average of A$578,579 and a median of A$500,000 from 88 lots so far in 2022, making him the country’s most commercial stallion, and I Am Invincible is on the verge of a first general sires' title.

He is under A$300,000 behind leader So You Think, who has enjoyed a stellar Sydney autumn carnival, but the rising 18-year-old is poised for a strong finish to the season which could see him score an elusive premiership win. I Am Invincible is also on track to sire 200 individual winners in a season for the second year in a row, an Australian record he holds alone.

His fee sits below the recently announced $275,000 figure for Newgate Farm’s Extreme Choice, the sire of the 2021 Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside and the autumn carnival’s ATC Champagne Stakes winner She’s Extreme from limited numbers.

I Am Invincible continues to excel in the sale ring as well as on the track; this colt here sold to Tom Magnier for A$950,000 at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling SaleCredit: Inglis

“I Am Invincible’s had the top gross at the Magic Millions and Easter sales for the past three years, so not only does he do it on the racetrack, he does it in the sale ring,” said Mitchell.

“We put a lot of thought into his fee and we’re just trying to be fair, to be honest. A lot of the stallions have gone up, and we think he’s holding his own equal to anything in the country.

“His numbers will also be cut back a bit this year. He’s pretty much fully booked, so there’s not going to be a lot of noms left to sell.”

I Am Invincible has covered 193 mares in each of the past two seasons, having served more than 200 in six of the previous seven years, but in his 13th year at stud that number is certain to be reduced.

I Am Invincible’s fee was cut to A$209,000 in 2020, while he stood for A$220,000 last year. Arrowfield Stud has also returned champion stallion Snitzel to his pre-pandemic service fee of A$220,000 for the 2022 season.

With only 35 of his 157 two-year-olds having raced so far and big numbers of well-bred stock to follow, Mitchell is confident I Am Invincible’s regular stakes-winning feats with his progeny on the racetrack will continue.

“He certainly won’t go backwards and, if anything, he’ll go forwards,” he said, emphatically.

“The wet tracks in Sydney during the autumn have knocked him around a bit as they don’t help his progeny. They look to perform better on the drier tracks.”

Mitchell was also adamant that Hellbent will have a strong finish to the racing season, which concludes on July 31, with his first-crop juveniles and that Yarraman Park Stud would be supporting him heavily again in his fifth year at stud.

“The wet tracks haven’t helped a few of them, either, but I think they are showing a huge amount of promise. He’s had three stakes horses and his bases are very much loaded,” he said.

“They’re in good stables, and I think it is proven by the big trainers stepping up to buy them again this year, so they obviously think a bit of what they’ve got by him.

“His fee is staying the same and he covers a restricted book of about 150 mares as well.”

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