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I Am Invincible filly tops opening session of Classic.

Star Thoroughbreds has enjoyed a lot of success with the daughters of gun stallion I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) so it was no surprise to see Denise Martin stretching to a session-topping $350,000 for a filly by the Yarraman Park-based sire late in the day at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale on Sunday. 

Martin, who purchased the filly in conjunction with the Randwick Bloodstock agency, bought back into a family she knows well having outlaid $330,000 for a sister to the filly at last year's renewal of the Classic sale. Now named Joviality and trained by Chris Waller the filly was intended to trial at Rosehill on Tuesday, but the jump-outs have been victim to the inclement weather that has hit Sydney over the past 24 hours and Martin said she expected to have to pay more for this filly.

"I paid $330,000 for the sister last year and I know the average for I Am Invincible fillies up until this year, so I thought the $330,000 of last year wasn't going to fit and I hoped that I wouldn't have to go to $400,000," said Martin. 

"We have raced I Am Invincible fillies including Invincibella and Fiesta who I bought at the Inglis Classic Sale, so we were keen to buy another I Am Invincible this year and this is the one, the sister to Joviality which I bought last year. It seemed like a good fit," said Martin. 

"I might have gone a little bit more, but don't tell the vendor that, but not very much. We'd probably reached our spend.

"We were very keen to buy into another I Am Invincible filly.

Catalogued as Lot 256 and offered by Fairhill Farm, the filly is out of the winning Fastnet Rock (Danehill) mare Limbo Down, who has produced two winners from three foals to race. 

The filly's third dam is unraced mare Bianca Lanica (Mill Reef) - the dam of Group 3 winner Handsome Ransom (Red Ransom) and Listed winner Danajaya (Danehill). 

Martin has had success buying off Fairhill Farm having purchased Group 2-winning filly Fiesta (I Am Invincible) for $150,000 at the 2017 Classic Sale and Mike O'Donnell of Fairhill said he was happy with Sunday's result. 

"We were delighted with the result," said O'Donnell. "She is a beautiful filly and she's gone to Denise Martin which is great because she has the two-year-old. She was very busy all week and right the way through. It's a fantastic result for the farm."

Earlier in the day, Martin secured a filly by Arrowfield Stud shuttler Shalaa (Invincible Spirit) for $220,000.

Catalogued as Lot 20, the filly is out of Group 2-placed Secret Savings (Seeking The Gold) mare Boom Time Savings, who is herself a half-sister to Boomwaa (Mutawaajid). 

Martin said she had really liked the filly during the inspections and was very happy to be taking her home.

"We thought she was a very precocious filly and one of the yearlings that I particularly wanted to go home with," Martin said.

"I was one of the few people who (braved the wet) and maybe a few people were late arriving.

"I just liked this filly. She has speed in the family and she has a relative who was very precocious.

"She was a yearling that I was really happy to have run under the Star banner.

"I thought she'd be expensive because I knew she was somewhat of a standout, so I figured she would be about ($220,000). It could have been a bit less but that was about what I thought she'd bring."

Shalaa's first-crop of yearlings have been well received in the southern hemisphere, with 23 of his progeny realising an aggregate of $5,755,000 at last month's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling, while he finished with an average of $250,217. 

Martin purchased four yearlings in total on the first day of the sale spending $960,000 on the quartet at an average of $240,000.