Date posted July 21, 2009 | Posted by Michele Cullen | Filed under
Feature PedigreeThere wasn’t a certain inevitability about the result in the Listed Monash Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday after I Am Invincible missed the start. But once his rider, Darren Gauci, had him travelling kindly at the halfway mark with the small but select field behind him the picture began to take shape.
Rounding the home turn, at the top of the straight, I Am Invincible quickened. And while he was getting tired near the line he showed plenty of courage to hold off the late challenge from the Brian Mayfield-Smith trained Gran Sasso (Dehere - Lady Soffel by Rubiton) to score by a half-head.
Gran Sasso’s stablemate Orange County (Volksraad - Saffie by Kaapstad) was a length away third.
I Am Invincible
Trained at Whittlesea by Peter Morgan, I Am Invincible was having his first start since stretching Takeover Target in the Group One Goodwood Handicap in South Australia on May 2nd.
Having just his 11th start Morgan revealed to TVN’s Bruce Clark that the stallions’ owners were keener than ever for him to run in America should he win the Group I Manikato Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley in September, a race that acts as a qualifying event for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (1300m) in November.
Morgan said, “He gets around the turns well so a track on turf in America would really suit him,”
“He is by Invincible Spirit and if he can go over there and be competitive it would make him a stallion prospect – worth a bit of money.”
“The owners have also fielded offers for I Am Invincible to race at Royal Ascot and stand at stud in England next year as he is by the same sire as this year’s July Cup winner Fleeting Spirit.”
First thing’s first for Morgan is the Group Three Bletchingly Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on August 1 and the Group Three McEwen Stakes (1000m) at Moonee Valley on September 12. Those events will be the bay stallions’ next assignments.
I Am Invincible has now won five of his 11 starts and has more than repaid his owners outlay of $62,500 when they purchased him as a yearling in 2006. The colt was selected out of the Woodlands stud as agent draft at the William Inglis Classic yearling sale by Toby Edmonds.
I Am Invincible is out of the unraced Canny Lad mare, Cannarelle and is her first black type winner.
