Monday 29th January 2007

Invasor Named Champion Older Male/Horse of Year

INVASOR (ARG) won the overall Eclipse Award of Horse of the Year 2006. This award is taken from a line up of other top rates awards from which he also gained the Best Older Horse of the Year 2006 award. He also earned the highest rating in the World Thoroughbred Racehorse Ratings on a mark of 129.

 

INVASOR won nine of his ten career starts and was unbeaten in four US starts last year including defying 3yo champion Bernadini after a 90 day layoff in the Breeder's Cup Classic. By winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic - Powered by Dodge (Gr. I), Invasor inscribed his name, and the names of his trainer, owner, and jockey, in the history books.

 

He became the first horse in the history of the Breeders’ Cup to win the Classic off a layoff of as long as 13 weeks, the only horse ever to win the Classic coming off three consecutive Grade I victories at three different distances (at three different racetracks), and the only champion bred and raced in another country to win the Classic.

 

In winning the Classic, he defeated the winners of 21 Grade I stakes, including three classic winners and two Travers winners. And he proved himself to be the most versatile Classic winner ever by winning at distances from 51/2 furlongs to 19/16 miles.

 

Shadwell became the first owner ever to win a classic (the Belmont Stakes, Gr. I, with Jazil) and the Breeders’ Cup Classic in the same year with two different horses. McLaughlin was able to share that same feat with his mentor, D. Wayne Lukas, who accomplished it in 1999 with Charismatic and Cat Thief.

And INVASOR’s jockey, 18-year-old Fernando Jara, became the youngest rider ever to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic.