It’s been a good weekend for Yarraman Park's champion sire I Am Invincible with a G1 winner and a colt soon to roll the dice in a G1 of his own.
On Friday night at The Valley his daughter Charm Stone got the G1 ball rolling for her sire in the new season, with a dominant win in the Manikato Stakes.
And on Saturday, his beautifully bred three year old colt Navy Pilot appeared on the Caulfield Guineas radar with a progressive win over 1400m at Sandown.
Should Navy Pilot and longtime Guineas favourite Vinrock - unplaced on Friday night in the G2 Stutt Stakes - contest the Guineas, they will be the first colts by I Am Invincible to line up in the Classic since The August in 2018.
That horse was well down the field behind champion The Autumn Sun, and ironically it was “Vinnie”'s Flight Stakes winning daughter Oohood that ran a gallant third to the colts that year!
Since then, no horse by I Am Invincible has contested the race.
The impressive Stutt Stakes winner West Of Swindon (Wootton Bassett) is a stablemate to Navy Pilot and both colts now sit at $11 in betting for the feature.
Ciaron Maher stable representative Leigh Allen declared the Guineas was firmly on Navy Pilot's agenda after his Sandown Hillside win over quality performer Bacash (Cosmic Force).
“He travelled a little bit boldly in the run but not too bad for him and he had the finishing touch there to get over the top” he said.
“He’s shown this preparation he’s taken a step forward and I’d imagine now we could go to the Caulfield Guineas … he should be given the opportunity for that, and that was the aim out of today.”
Apprentice jockey Logan Bates was impressed with the colt, saying
“He savaged the line late.”
“He’s a lovely colt, a little bit slow into stride but he was quick to muster.
He’s still quite new going this way. He still doesn’t know how to put them away yet.
“He’s got a lot of raw ability he’s using at the moment, so it’s exciting for the team.”
Navy Pilot was passed in shy of his $750,000 reserve at Magic Millions and retained to race by Phoenix Thoroughbreds.
The good looking bay has now had 8 race starts for 2 wins and 3 placings (2 at Listed level) for $208,650 in stakes.
While there may have been a couple of legitimate excuses, Vinrock’s defeat on Friday will have many punters doubting his ability to run a strong mile. But he is a record breaking, dual G1 winning colt with a bright commercial breeding future at Yulong assured - whether he wins the Guineas or not.
Navy Pilot on the other hand still has it all to prove at G1 level, but he was always going to be a later maturing type.
His third in the Listed Show A Heart over 1500m at Eagle Farm in June was encouraging before he was unplaced in the G1 JJ Atkins behind juvenile star Cool Archie.
Will either of these I Am Invincible colts run a strong mile? It's an interesting question!
Vinrock's dam was a G2 2000m winner.
Navy Pilot's granddam was a G1 2000m winner
But the biggest factor in Navy Pilot's favour is that he is very closely related to champion Anamoe (Street Boss) who won the Caulfield Guineas in 2021 and was famously pipped in the Cox Plate that year before returning to claim the prize in 2022.
Navy Pilot is out of Anamato’s GB- foaled, race winning daughter Amuletum (New Approach), imported into Australia in 2019 in foal to champion sire Kingman. That filly foal Royal Mule was a winner and is expecting her first foal by Exceedance this spring.
Amuletum next produced the outstanding filly Tiz Invincible to the cover of I Am Invincible, who at three won The Rosebud and the G2 Furious / Tea Rose double - but the 1600m of the G1 Flight Stakes eluded her.
Amuletum's dam Anamato was retired from breeding duties this year. The G1 Australasian Oaks winning, globe trotting daughter of mighty Redoute's Choice bids to leave a breed shaping stallion for Australia in her nine times G1 winning son of Street Boss, Anamoe.
Her final foal Anagram is a full brother to Anamoe ad there is much indeed to look forward to with superbly bred young horses coming online from this immediate family.
Navy Pilot's damline is the famous “Belle” family of NZ, a branch of Manto (18) which was nurtured to fame and fortune by renowned NZ breeders Jim and Annie Sarten in a long association with Haunui Farm - one which continues to this day with their daughter Marie Leicester.
The Sartens were gifted a thoroughbred mare they had provided grazing for on their Taranaki farm, during the dark days of WWII.
Her name was Belle Star and she was by the very good imported German stallion Lucullus. The Sartens mated her to Foxbridge - the great sire then in the infancy of his towering stud career - and got the good sprinting filly Belle Fox.
Belle Fox was a difficult breeder, stubbornly failing to conceive and finally producing a cripple for a first foal. She would have been cast off by most breeders then and now, but the Sartens persisted - and finally in her sixth season Belle Fox rewarded them with a colt by Fair's Fair. Named Supreme Court he would win 16 races including the G1 Railway Hcp.
From these humble beginnings the family descending from Belle Fox blossomed into one of NZ's most respected and enduring sources of stakes winners, and champions!
Belle Fox produced just five foals and Belle Rosa (Instinct) founded a successful branch through her champion daughter Star Belle, a NZ Ellerslie Triple Crown winner who crossed the Tasman and won the Liston, Craiglee and Turnbull Stakes.
Star Belle’s half sister Phar Belle (Pharamond) became the third dam of freakish and ill fated Golden Slipper Stakes / Newmarket Handicap winner Belle Du Jour (Dehere).
Another daughter of Belle Fox was Belle Time (Summertime) and this is the prolific branch from which Navy Pilot descends.
G1 winners Asgard and Honey Belle were foaled by Belle Time and from her descend luminaries such as 2YO Triple Crown winner Dance Hero, NZ HOTY Melody Belle, NZ Filly Of The Year Tri Belle, champion and 7 x G1 winner Grand Armee and G1 mare Winning Belle (dam of G1 winner Plucky Belle) as well as Navy Pilot's grand dam Anamato.
Grand Armee’s dam Tambour, multiple stakes producer Eldarin, Volte ( dam of G1 Rosehill Guineas winner Dealer Principal ) and their G1 Oakleigh Plate winning full brother Drum were all sired by Marauding and were half siblings to Anamato.
They were foaled by MVRC Australia Stakes winner Voltage by Whiskey Road.
Anamoe is a great example of the enduring, season-after-season style of champion this family can produce when the genetic cards fall the right way.
More than 100 stakes winners and at least 24 G1 winners descend directly from Belle Fox.
Navy Pilot's damsire New Approach is wielding increasing influence in this role. The champion son of Galileo, undefeated in five races at two and 3 x G1 winner at three has sired a Derby winning son Madar, and an Oaks winner Talent among his G1 winners. His daughters have produced international champion Modern Games (Dubawi) and G1 Classic winners of both sexes in Rosallion (Blue Point)and Mawj (Exceed And Excel)
I Am Invincible has sired NZ 1,000 Guineas winning filly Media Sensation from a High Chaparral mare while daughter Invincibella (Galileo/Zabeel) won at mile and placed over longer, failed to run the Oaks trip and successfully reverted to being a sprinter.
Navy Pilot is bred
Northern Dancer 5m x 5m
Danzig 4m x 5m
Canny Lad 3f x 5f
He's going to get a nice stamina boost from those daughters of Canny Lad, who had masses of speed but also won the Stutt Stakes and placed in a Cox Plate at three.
New Approach has to up the Classic factor enormously and is a proven damsire of Classic winners from speed sires (Blue Point, Exceed And Excel)
Navy Point possesses sex balanced line breeding to Grey Sovereign and duplication of related sires Bletchingly, Danzig and Rockefella - on both sides of his pedigree.
New Approach is from the family of Sunshot through his third dam Lachine by Nasrullah son Grey Sovereign.
I Am Invincible's grandsire Green Desert descends from a daughter of Lalun (Sunshot) who was by Nasrullah’s son Never Bend.
The second dam of New Approach Matcher is bred very similarly to Rafha, the dam of Invincible Spirit.
Navy Pilot does have a beautiful balance of speed and stamina in his pedigree!
