Much has changed over the decades since Major James Mitchell, a retired British Army officer who had a distinguished service record to his name, purchased Yarraman Park Stud in 1968 from the great jockey George Moore, who had ridden the Derby winner in England only the previous year.
Major Mitchell brought his wife Bunty and their young sons Harry, Arthur and Bill out from England to make a new life for the family, breeding racehorses in New South Wales.
Since then, what was still in those days largely a gentleman’s pastime has developed into ‘the breeding industry’. Yarraman Park has seamlessly handled the transition from one era to another, as the results from Book One of the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale illustrate.
"Yarraman Park has seamlessly handled the transition from one era to another." - John Berry
Trade was buoyant throughout the four days of Book One, with Yarraman Park leading the way. The stud sold 27 of the 28 yearlings which it offered for an aggregate of $11,595,000, at an average of $429,444. This draft featured the sale-topping Lot 869, an I Am Invincible colt ex Oakleigh Girl who fetched $1,700,000. It also included Lot 204, a son of I Am Invincible ex Tai Tai Tess who was sold for $1,300,000, and Lot 72, a daughter of I Am Invincible ex Rose Of Choice for whom the bidding stopped at a million dollars.
The common dominator between those three yearlings, beyond being consigned (as agent) by Yarraman Park Stud, was that each is by the stud’s resident stallion I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit {Aus}) who has gone from strength to strength since retiring to the stud in 2010 at a fee of $11,000 as a Group Three-winning, Group One-placed sprinter.
Merely eight years later, I Am Invincible last season commanded a fee 17.5 times higher (ie $192,500), having finished the 2017/’18 campaign in second place behind Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) in the General Sires’ Premiership.
I Am Invincible
A history of successful stallions
While the success of I Am Invincible is obviously crucial to Yarraman Park’s current eminence, this is merely the latest of many happy chapters in its story under the Mitchells’ stewardship. Nowadays, Arthur and Harry Mitchell run the stud, and they have clearly inherited their father’s ability to unearth a high-class stallion.
"Nowadays, Arthur and Harry Mitchell run the stud, and they have clearly inherited their father’s ability to unearth a high-class stallion." - John Berry
There have been good stallions at Yarraman Park for years, with the excellent sprinting sire County (Vain) a stalwart for a time. The stud was also in the vanguard of the shuttling boom when 1988 British champion two-year-old High Estate (GB) (Shirley Heights {GB}) shuttled from Coolmore in Ireland to Yarraman Park in 1990, the same year that his contemporary Danehill (USA) (Danzig {USA}) had his first season of shuttling from Coolmore to Arrowfield. In Europe High Estate sired the 1998 Derby winner High-Rise, but he produced nothing of that class in Australia, and more recently Yarraman Park has been synonymous with locally-bred stallions.
Arthur Mitchell
I Am Invincible has not provided Yarraman Park’s only stallion success-story during the current century. Like I Am Invincible, Magic Albert (Zeditave) was a very fast horse but just short of top-class, but he too graduated into an extremely good stallion, siring many fast horses. He stood on the Yarraman Park roster alongside 1999 G1 Golden Slipper S. hero Catbird (Danehill {USA}), who was also a prolific source of good winners before his premature death.
The magnificent Foreplay (Danehill {USA}) was another inspired recruit who got some very smart horses despite poor fertility; while more recently Hinchinbrook (Fastnet Rock), who had been foaled and raised at Yarraman Park, was showing similar promise to I Am Invincible before dying shortly before the start of the past breeding season, aged only 10.
Hinchinbrook who sadly died in 2018
Magic Millions winners so far
The Magic Millions race-day has been a great one for Yarraman Park stallions in recent years, most notably with Houtzen (I Am Invincible) winning the MM 2YO Classic in 2017. The same day saw Flying Jess (Hinchinbrook) take the MM 3YO Guineas. I Am Invincible sired the winner of the MM Fillies and Mares in both 2016 (I Am Zelady) and 2018 (Invincibella), while Hinchinbrook sired the winner of the MM Maiden Plate in 2018 (Problem Solver).
One of I Am Invincible’s seven (so far!) Group One winners, Viddora, landed last year’s MM Snippets, while this year it was his six-time Group-winning daughter Invincibella who got her father on the score-sheet by taking the MM Fillies and Mares for the second year running.
Invincibella taking out her second Magic Millions Fillies and Mares Plate
The first great Magic Millions result for the Mitchell family, of course, came not from a horse bred at Yarraman Park, but from one trained by Bill Mitchell, who ran very successful stables in both Sydney and Brisbane for years before giving the training game away to become a bloodstock agent.
One of the several top-class horses whom he trained was General Nediym (Nediym {Ire}) who was bought at the 1996 MM Gold Coast January Yearling Sale for merely $20,000 before taking the MM 2YO Classic twelve months later and then going on to complete the G1 Lightning S. / G1 Newmarket H. double in Melbourne as a three-year-old. Further glory followed when he won the inaugural MM Cup as a four-year-old in 1999.
Bill Mitchell at the recent Magic Millions sale
Overall, I Am Invincible had 55 yearlings sold in the sale for an aggregate of $24,345,000, at an average of $442,636. As Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch observed in his post-sale statement, this is believed to represent “the record for the gross at any sale”.
Sixteen of these were offered by Yarraman Park; all sixteen changed hands for a total of $8,820,000, at an average of $551,250. The stud did similarly well with the three Hinchinbrook yearlings which it offered, who grossed $1,590,000 at an average of $530,000. Overall, Yarraman Park was leading vendor by both aggregate ($11,595,000 for the 27 yearlings which it sold) and average ($429,444).
"Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch observed in his post-sale statement, this is believed to represent “the record for the gross at any sale”." - John Berry
Sadly, of course, there will be no more Hinchinbrooks after the ones who were born during the past season. I Am Invincible, however, looks sure to continue to go from strength to strength, making it even more likely that the next few decades should be as successful for Yarraman Park Stud as the past few have been.
