Invincible eleven – Yarraman Park bring 11 of ‘Vinnies’ best to Easter

“The best of Shadwell breeding” is how Yarraman Park’s Harry Mitchell describes the famed international stud’s twelve yearlings heading to Easter, a unique opportunity to secure some of Australia’s most successful bloodlines.

“The cream” meanwhile is Shadwell’s racing manager Angus Gold description of the draft and it seems apt with each of the youngsters being by high class, proven stallions; Written Tycoon, I Am Invincible, Snitzel, Tavistock and Exceed And Excel.

Whilst each yearling is an exciting racing prospect, they also have considerable dual purpose value with the fillies a welcome addition to any broodmare band whilst the colts have definite stallion’s pedigrees.

Lot 37 bay colt by Written Tycoon from Reemah (by Redoute’s Choice): six of the 54 winners bred on this Written Tycoon/Redoute’s Choice cross, one which results in a cross of the wonderful mare Best In Show, are stakes winners. Also carrying Vain and Biscay crosses, he is out of a speedy mare who was only just beaten by Pride Of Dubai in the Blue Diamond Stakes-Gr.1, 1200m. Grandam is the Group Two mare Vormista.

Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes-Gr,1, 1400m winning dam has done a fine job with her five foals to race all being winners including the metropolitan winners Sohool, Al Khabeer and Dawaa. Line-bred to the influential mares Lalun and Almahmoud, he hails from the prolific Easy Date family that has produced Snippets, Not A Single Doubt, Ertijaal, Sense Of Occasion, Oohood and Forensics.

Lot 42 bay colt by Tavistock from Rimraam (by Commands): first foal for a Vanity Stakes-Gr.3, 1400m winner whose half-brother is the dual Group Three winner Sweynesse. Descendant of the influential matriarch Torpenhow whose most famous descendant Nijinsky II features in the late Tavistock’s pedigree.

Lot 77 chestnut colt by Written Tycoon from Shaaheq (by Redoute’s Choice): son of a Group Three winning Blue Diamond runner-up (nabbed late by Star Witness) whose dam is the dual Group Three winner Damaschino whose half-sister is the two times Group One winning sprinter/miler Bawalaksana. Boasts Best In Show, Natalma and Oceana crosses.

Lot 116 bay filly by I Am Invincible from Taameer (by General Nediym): she is a daughter of a dual stakes winner who is really doing the job at stud with her first five foals all winners including the Group Three filly Khulaasa and the Listed winner Bulbula (in turn dam of the Group Three winner Aryaaf. 11 of the 15 runners bred on this I Am Invincible/General Nediym cross (one which results in the duplication of the high class mare Diableretta) are winners including the exciting Group Three winning juvenile General Beau.

Lot 122 bay filly by Exceed And Excel from Telaawa (by Lonhro): half-sister to the Group Three winner Minhaaj out of a half-sister to the Group Three winners Charmed Harmony and Suyoof from the speed family of big race winners Reward For Effort, Overreach, Brawny Spirit and Hit The Roof. Exceed And Excel has sired four stakes winners out of Lonhro mares.

Lot 138 bay filly by I Am Invincible from Turaathy (by Redoute’s Choice): second foal for an imported daughter of South African Horse Of The Year National Colour, a triple Group One winner whose sons (both by Redoute’s Choice) Rafeef and Mustaaqeem (the 2016 Easter Sale topper) won Group One races on the same day at Turffontein.

Lot 173 bay colt by I Am Invincible from Zamzam (by Redoute’s Choice): his dam is a stakes winning daughter of the Group One placed Fleur De’here whose dam is the Group Two winner Fleur de Chine whose grandam is the VRC Oaks-Gr.1, 2500m heroine Sanderae. What a family this is, one that has also produced the Group One winners Tully Thunder, Levendi, Black Mamba, Roman Emperor and Glorious Days.

Lot 227 bay colt by Snitzel from Bulbula (by Shamardal): half-brother to the Ottawa Stakes-Gr.3, 1000m winner Aryaaf out of a Listed winning daughter of the dual stakes winner Taameer, dam of lot 116.

Lot 285 bay colt by Muhaarar from Ektifaa (by More Than Ready): one of only three of the progeny of his sire, a multiple Group One winning sprinting son of Oasis Dream, he is the first foal for an imported two times Group winner from the family of the Group One gallopers Calveen, Asia and Dr Grace. Carries a cross of the famed matriarch Best In Show.

Lot 292 bay filly by Snitzel from Elzeeza (by Hussonet): half-sister to the South African Champion 2Y0 Colt Soqrat, winner of three Group One races. Her dam is a Moonee Valley winning 3/4 sister to the Phar Lap Stakes-Gr.2, 1500m winner Colorado Claire (dam of the Todman Stakes-Gr.2, 1200m winner Gunnison) and to the stakes placed Bubble Below whose son is the Hong Kong star Lucky Bubbles.

Lot 406 bay colt by I Am Invincible from Madeenaty (by Exceed And Excel): first foal for a speedy juvenile stakes winner whose dam is the dual Group Two winner Set For Fame. Boasts an exciting pedigree being a descendant of Coogee whose wonderful son Bletchingly is the sire of I Am Invincible’s dam sire Canny Lad.
The remainder of Yarraman’s draft is also exceptionally strong and they are in action from the get-go as vendors of the very first lot, an exciting I Am Invincible filly whose fourth dam Eljazzi is Invincible Spirit’s grandam. Of course I am Invincible calls Yarraman home and is also the sire at Easter of, amongst others, full sisters to Viddora and Houtzen.

Close relations to Group One sprinters are other highlights of the Yarraman Easter draft including a brother to the Oakleigh Plate-Gr.1, 1100m winner Booker (by Written Tycoon) and a Capitalist half-brother to the Coolmore Stud Stakes-Gr.1, 1200m winning stallion Exceedance.

Harry Mitchell always looks forward to Easter but this one is a particularly sentimental one.

“We have been looking after Shadwell’s Australian horses for two decades,” he said, citing Group One success for such classy gallopers as Rewaaya and Soqrat as a couple of “many highlights.”

“It is very exciting to be taking these yearlings to Easter,” he said… “it is the end of an era.”

2021 Draft