Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
The victory was not only a first at stakes level for a horse in the Sledmere Stud colours, it was a key part of a plan that the Murphys - Royston and his wife Catriona, had hatched when they purchased Invictus Salute from her breeders Geoff and Mary Grimish back in April.
The first part of the plan was to get the mare in foal to Yarrraman Park stallion I Am Invincible, something she achieved at her first attempt earlier this spring.
The Murphys and trainer Mark Newnham then knew they had one last shot at getting Invictus Salute a valuable black-type success on her resume, and she duly delivered at Rosehill on Saturday, thanks to a perfect ride from Rachel King, coming off the back of the leader Spaceboy (Deep Field) to win in what will most likely be her final start.
Royston admits there was a degree of risk when they decided to purchase Invictus Salute, but things have pretty much progressed perfectly every step of the way since.
"It’s a big investment for us to hook into a mare like that. I knew the family really well having had some of them on the farm. It’s a good selling family and she's a queen herself. I was happy to buy her," Murphy told TDN AusNZ.
"I knew the family really well having had some of them on the farm. It’s a good selling family and she's a queen herself." - Royston Murphy
Invictus Salute had been twice stakes placed, in a Listed Woodlands S. as a 2-year-old and then in a G3 Bellmaine S. earlier this year, before Sledmere purchased her.
Her stakes-placed dam Acquired (NZ) (O'Reilly {NZ}) is a sister to the influential broodmare and Group 2-winning juvenile Hips Don't Lie (NZ) (Stravinsky {USA}), who has produced three $1 million-plus yearlings herself, including stakes winning Fastnet Rock mare Lake Geneva.
Invictus Salute as a yearling
At the point when Sledmere bought Invictus Salute, she was one of three stakes-placed horses out of Acquired (NZ), the others being Acqume (Sepoy) and Splintex (Snitzel), but soon after the sale, the dam's pedigree got a significant boost when Splintex won the G2 Arrowfield 3YO Sprint.
"The day after I bought her, Splintex won the Group 2 and we were pretty much out of her the next day. Obviously winning the Listed race was a cherry on top really. It’s something Mark (Newnham, trainer) and I have been talking about since we bought her, just to try and get that over the line," Murphy said.
A month after purchasing her, Sledmere offered Invictus Salute through the Inglis Chairman's Sale, but it was always going to take a significant offer to prise her away, given Murphy's faith in both the mare and her extended family.
"We thought maybe it was a chance to cash in on her and we put her in the Chairman's Sale, but we put a pretty big reserve on her. We knew her value and she really had to make the money for us to sell her," he said.
"We got pretty close to the money. Andy Williams was the top bidder, he loved her too. I said to him yesterday I think one more bid he might have had her. Sometimes, it just works out, because we are lucky he didn’t go that one more bid."
Royston and Catriona Murphy
Family keeps delivering
If the Murphys needed reassurance that they had made the right call with Invictus Salute it came when her 2-year-old half-brother Sixgun (Snitzel) broke his maiden on debut at Canterbury in June.
Further measure of the value of the family came when Acqume was sold after initially passing in short of her $900,000 reserve at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. She was secured by Willow Park Stud from Aquis and has subsequently foaled a colt by Lope De Vega (Ire).
Acquired herself was purchased by Highgrove Stud for $450,000 at the 2019 Inglis Chairman's Sale and has foaled a colt by The Autumn Sun this spring.
Kickstarting Invictus Salute's own breeding career was the first priority for the Murphy's this spring and the mating needed to reflect the ambition and promise of the rest of the family.
"We are all trying to find these outcross stallions to suit Exceed mares and it’s a big investment for us. We don’t normally step up to those big stallions, especially while still going through the building phase at the farm," he said.
"I think just on physical, what we know Vinnie can throw and the sort she is, it will hopefully be an outstanding type of foal."
I Am Invincible | Standing at Yarraman Park
The final piece of the puzzle
With her mating with I Am Invincible going exactly as hoped, there was one more thing to shoot for.
"I was mindful that I wanted to cover her but I also wanted to keep her going. We took her home for a short time, the girls here kept her working out on the hills. She came back from Mark's looking a treat and she then went in foal and started to thrive," he said.
"Pregnancy agrees with some of them and not others when racing on. Mark has been telling us how well she has been going and it’s been the same with the jockeys that have been getting on her. They have been saying she has been great in herself."
Resuming from a short let-up earlier this month, she was able to win an 1100-metre BM100 H. at Randwick earlier this month before heading back to stakes company. It wasn't always certain it would be the Starlight S. which would be her farewell, but the decision not to send her to Brisbane on Saturday proved the right one.
"Our main aim was just to win that race. we had her nommed for Brisbane as well. We ummed and ahhed over whether we go there, because it looked a little softer as a race, but with the weather being hot and her being in foal, an eight-hour trip was a big thing," he said.
"Mark was so confident with how she was going, it was always going to be her last throw at the stumps. She was only 68 days in foal yesterday, and she might have had a couple of other chances up her sleeve, but personally I don’t like going too far with them in foal."
Trainer Mark Newnham
The narrow win, cheered on heartily by the Murphy family, was just about the perfect way for Invictus Salute to finish off her racing career.
"It's a bit like getting a big result at the sales. When you invest a lot, and you get the result, it makes it all worthwhile," he said.
"The big thing for us is that she is an absolute queen. She's one of the nicest Exceed fillies you would lay an eye on. That's really important too as well. We are looking forward to seeing her Vinnie foal."
