By Bren O'Brien
As a three-time stakes winner by one of Australia's leading sires, Invincible Gem (I Am Invincible) looks an attractive broodmare prospect, but that's the last thing on the mind of owner Charles Hill as his mare embarks on her spring campaign with a shot at her second victory in the G2 Missile S. at Rosehill on Saturday.
The 6-year-old mare is the fourth generation of her family bred on the Hill family's farm near Quirindi, with Hill's father Theo having purchased her third dam Go Cool (Tingo {GB}) as a yearling in 1989.
And Invincible Gem, trained by Kris Lees, is undoubtedly the star of the family, having won six races for Hill and his brother-in-law Phil Tonkin for over $800,000 in prizemoney. That includes the G2 Missile S., and the G3 Spring S. in 2017 as well as the G2 Emancipation S, earlier this year.
"We always thought she was going to be pretty good, but not as good as she has been. She is very tough and she's been very healthy. She's never injured herself and she's never been lame, she had colic when she was three, but other than that she's very strong and has got a good constitution," Hill told TDN AusNZ.
"It’s great to see her back, Kris is pretty happy with her. She's in pretty good shape, she's had a good spell this winter and we are pretty excited about what she can do in the spring."
"We always thought she was going to be pretty good, but not as good as she has been. She is very tough and she's been very healthy." - Charles Hill
The connection with Lees, based 220km down the road in Newcastle, came about when it became apparent that a young Invincible Gem would require a trainer to help fulfil her considerable natural talent.
"It was a great decision that one because they have been a terrific stable to deal with. Their communication is great and the way he looks after the horses, we give him young ones every now and then, it’s a great fit for us," Hill said.
Theo Hill's decision to send Diamond Day to I Am Invincible on an $11,000 service fee in 2012 proved a stroke of genius
The Hill family are very much part-time thoroughbred breeders, with just a couple of broodmares on what is mainly a cattle farm, including Invincible Gem's dam Diamond Day (Marwina).
The late Theo Hill's decision to send Diamond Day to Yarraman Park's then third-season stallion on an $11,000 service fee in 2012 proved a stroke of genius, but Theo's subsequent poor health saw her without another foal for the next three seasons.
The emergence of Invincible Gem saw Charles and his brother-in-law look to carry on with the family after Theo's death and Diamond Day now has a 2-year-old colt by Time For War and a just-turned yearling colt by Your Song.
Kris Lees is also training a Time for War colt owned by the Hills
"(The Time for War colt) has had one stint with Kris already. We broke him in back in the autumn. We handle them and muck around with them here and send them down to Kris. He had a couple of weeks down there, been on the track and now he's back here having a spell, and is not far away from coming back in," he said.
"He looks a pretty nice horse actually."
The Your Song colt could be one to look out for at the yearling sales in 2020, with Hill and Tonkin only keen to race a couple at a time.
"He's a big strong type. He looks like an early-running horse that we might consider going to the sales with this year," Hill said.
"He's a big strong type. He looks like an early-running horse that we might consider going to the sales with this year." - Charles Hill
Diamond Day missed to Territories (Ire) in 2018 and is headed back to the Darley stallion again this year.
In terms of a potential breeding career for Invincible Gem, Hill is not yet ready to contemplate that, but thinks when the day comes, she’ll be on the same Quirindi farm as her mother and her grandmother.
"We've always bred horses here, so there's a fair chance we’d breed her ourselves. I don’t envisage selling her," he said.
"We have always been in horses, a little bit in racehorses, but more in stock horses and performance horses. We’ve had a bit of a luck and have ended up with a good one."
