WHEN Invincible Spirit (by Green Desert) retired to stud there was an element of unknown quantity about him.
Yes, he was by a leading sire son of Danzig (by Northern Dancer), out of the French classic winner Rafha (by Kris), and from the family of the 1980 champion sire Pitcairn (by Petingo), but he had not won his first pattern race until September of his four-year-old season, and his Group 1 success, on his final start at five, earned a rating of only 118.
This good-looking horse, however, been a tremendous success right from the start, his fee has risen all the way from €10,000 to €100,000, and the Irish National Stud flag bearer is well-established as one of the very best sires in Europe.
In 2014 he was runner-up to Galileo in the overall European sires championship, which is decided by earnings, but he was number one by the total of individual winners and by races won, and his Group 1 winners of the campaign were the outstanding milers Charm Spirit and Kingman.
That pair are about to start their first season at stud, and as they are by the sire of the Group 1 sires Lawman and I Am Invincible, the latter Australia’s champion freshman of 2013/14, their prospects for success look excellent.
Invincible Spirit stallions also include the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes winner Zebedee, who was one of the top first season in Europe in 2014, and Captain Marvellous, who has sired winners, and also last year’s foal sales hit Born To Sea.
They also include the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile hero Vale Of York who, like Zebedee, was a notably successful last season, his roll of honour headed by the star Italian filly Fontanelice.
Out of Choose Me Please (by Choisir), she was bred by John McLoughney, won two listed contests, and then added Group 3 contests over six and eight furlongs at that same venue, the last of her big-race wins coming in mid-October.
Fontanelice could be a potential Group 3 Premio Regina Elena (Italian 1000 Guineas) heroine in the making, and will be interesting to see if she stays 10 or even 12 furlongs this season.
His first juveniles also included Haxby (dam by Russian Revival), a five furlong winner at Doncaster in May who then finished an honourable fifth behind Hootenanny in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at Ascot before chasing home another subsequent Group 1 star, Tiggy Wiggy, in the Weatherbys Super Sprint.
Little Rooster (dam by Machiavellian) won a six furlong Naas maiden on her only start for Paul Deegan, the highly-regarded Harold Peto (dam by Dr Devious) won a mile Navan maiden on the second of his two starts, and the Martyn Meade-trained Great Park (dam by Marju) easily won a seven furlong Newmarket nursery on his final start of 2014.
Whip Up A Frenzy (dam by Groom Dancer), another of his sire’s multiple winners, took a pair of seven furlong nurseries at Dundalk late in the year for trainer Andy Oliver, and Invincible Wish (dam by Peintre Celebre), who won a seven furlong Wolverhampton nursery in September, rounded off his first season with an odds-on seven-length success over the same trip at Southwell in November.
Vale Of York is the best winner out of Red Vale (by Halling), an unraced half-sister to the US Grade 3 scorer Uraib (by Mark Of Esteem) and out of Hamsaat (by Sadler’s Wells), a winning full-sister to the Group 2 Prince of Wales’s Stakes and Group 2 Tattersalls Gold Cup scorer Batshoof (by Sadler’s Wells).
He was moderately successful at stud, as was Ancestral (by Habitat), who was a full-brother to Vale Of York’s third dam Steel Habit, but that latter stallion was also a full-brother to Zummerudd, the mare who gave us King Of Kings, General Monash, and the dam of China Visit, among others.
King Of Kings (by Sadler’s Wells) won the Group 1 2000 Guineas and got several Group 1 winners in the southern hemisphere, including the New Zealand 2000 Guineas King’s Chapel, a triple Group 1 star.
General Monash (by Thorn Dance) got a variety of winners, including some blacktype earners, and China Visit (by Red Ransom) sired a string of Indian Group 1 winners.
Vale Of York has made a promising start to his career, and having already got a dual pattern winner in his first crop, he has proved himself capable of getting talented racehorses.
VALE OF YORK (IRE)
Race Record: Winner of 3 races at 2 years, over 7-8.5f inc Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Gr.1, Stardom Stakes, Listed, 2nd Gran Criterium, Gr.1, 3rd Royal Lodge Stakes, Gr.2, etc.
Stud Record: Retired to stud in 2011. First crop are 3yo. 1 SW inc Fontanelice (Premio Dormello, Gr.3, Premio Primi Passi, Gr.3, Premio Allesandro Perrone, Listed, Premio Vittorio Crespi, Listed), Great Park (2 wins), Invincible Wish (2 wins), Jackville Go (2 wins), Whip Up A Frenzy (2 wins), Escrick, Harold Peto, Haxby, Little Rooster, Millar Rose, Olivia Fallow, Ruby Rose, Sunny York, Thecornishassassin, etc.
Stands at: Kildangan Stud, Monasterevin, Co Kildare. Contact: Gerry Duffy (General Manager), Eamon Moloney or Anthony O’Donnell on +353 (0)45 527600
Email: hello@darley.co.uk
Website: www.darleyeurope.com
Fee: €3,000 1st Oct SLF