Premier-topping Toronado gains juvenile stakes boost
Fresh from once more topping the aggregates at his home state yearling sale Inglis Premier, Swettenham Stud’s Toronado (High Chaparral) is flying high again after his first Australian two-year-old stakes winner on Saturday.
Grinzinger Heart (Toronado) clung on tenaciously to take the VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) by 0.06 lengths at Flemington at only her second start, after leading all the way.
It was a victory for the battlers, with the filly blowing to $41 and upsetting Godolphin’s $1.65 hot pot Zambales (Pinatubo), who continued Darley’s tantalising wait for a first winner for shuttler Pinatubo (Shamardal) which has so far brought three stakes placegetters among ten runners.
The success of Grinzinger Heart – a $110,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast buy for prominent owner John Wheeler from NSW breeders Lustre Lodge – was also the first at stakes level for young trainer Ben Brisbourne, the expat Briton who now calls Wangaratta home.
And it showed another string to Toronado’s bow.
The 16-year-old son of High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells) has forged an impressive career at Swettenham, building a reputation as one of Victoria’s top two stallions alongside Yulong’s 23-year-old Written Tycoon (Iglesia), which led his owners Al Shaqab Racing to stop shuttling him from France and leave him in Australia from 2022.
Last week, a total spend of $5.04 million on his progeny saw Toronado finish the leading sire by aggregate at Premier for the third year running – and for the fourth time in five years following a narrow second to I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) in 2023.
Toronado has finished in the top 13 on the Australian general sires’ list in three of the past four seasons, and currently sits 15th. Written Tycoon is the only Victorian stallion sitting higher in 12th.
While it’s a term often bandied about without solid statistical backing, Toronado is also genuinely successful and popular in Hong Kong, where he has 32 winners, five coming at stakes-level from 59 runners at 8.47 per cent, headed by 2024 Centenary Sprint Cup (Gr 1, 1200m) hero Victor The Winner.
His strength in the territory is also reflected by the fact that he has two of the leading market fancies for the Hong Kong Derby (Listed, 2000m) on March 22 in Stormy Grove and Little Paradise.
Also in Hong Kong, he has six-year-old sprinter Helios Express, who’s a triple stakes winner amid eight career victories, but has also been unlucky enough to run second to the great Ka Ying Rising (Shamexpress) seven times, five of those at Group 1 level.
All this would seem to support the contention that Swettenham’s flagbearer has mostly been renowned for producing performers aged three and older.
But while Toronado has only two juveniles amongst his 49 stakes winners worldwide – with the previous one coming at Royal Ascot in 2020 via gelding Tactical in the Windsor Castle Stakes (Listed, 5f) – Swettenham principal Adam Sangster says the stallion has proven he can leave quality two-year-olds.
Toronado indeed boasts two of the seven winners of Victoria’s million-dollar (but non-black type) juvenile event, the VOBIS Platinum Showdown (1200m).
Gelding Prince Of Sussex won its inaugural edition in 2019, before going on to win and be thrice stakes-placed in Hong Kong, while filly Shesallshenanigans was victorious in 2023.
And among his top 27-ranked performers, eight of them have won at two.
“It was great to see Grinzinger Heart win on Saturday,” Sangster told ANZ News, of the filly who’d debuted with a fourth in Flemington’s Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m). “Seeing what she’d done in the Talindert, it was good to see her go on with it.
“It was great to see the win for Ben Brisbourne, who’s a damn good trainer. He flies under the radar a bit, but I think he’s got real talent.
“And of course it was great for Toronado. We know how good Toronado is. He’s thrown some very nice horses in Europe which are two-year-olds. Down here, he’s more known for his three-year-olds so far, but really, they come in all shapes and sizes and he’s just a really consistent sire.”
Sangster said it should be remembered the VOBIS Platinum Showdown, open to juveniles by Victoria-based stallions, had helped put Toronado on the map in Australia.
“His first Showdown winner, Prince Of Sussex, came from his first Australian crop,” Sangster said. “Because of that, Toronado got an extraordinarily strong book in his fourth season, which really endorsed the fact that the Showdown has an effect in the breeding barn for those Victorian-breds.
“So, big tick to the powers that be who organised the Showdown, and to acknowledge Victorian-breds, because it certainly helped Toronado get the numbers, and subsequently those numbers have transpired into people making good money on Toronados.
“He’s done well for breeders, traders, sales companies, pinhookers, and trainers. And he’s done well for me and the owners Al Shaqab.”
Sangster said Grinzinger Heart had again flown the flag for Toronado’s fillies on a day when another one – three-year-old Confesara – won impressively over 1500 metres for Roger James and Robert Wellwood at the feature raceday at Ellerslie.
Toronado’s offspring have an almost even gender split in terms of results. His colts include 384 winners and 26 stakes winners, compared to 371 and 23 for his females.
“To see his fillies coming through is just wonderful,” Sangster said. “His fillies and mares are doing a damn good job in Australia, while so many of his males are aimed up towards trading to Hong Kong.
“But Toronado’s success is testament to breeders having faith in him. Not only does he throw an exceptional sales horse, and he very much stamps them and they’re very good movers, but they obviously also suit Hong Kong and the conditions up there.
“He’s young, he’s fertile, he’s got the runs on the board and he’s just going to get stronger and stronger.”
Toronado also showed strong recovery powers last spring, after he was laid low before the start of the breeding season due to a hock injury and subsequent infection. While it was feared he might miss the entire spring, he was back breeding in time to cover 84 mares – well down from his 170 in 2024, but a hefty amount considering his restricted availability.
“We were guarded, you prepare for the worst and hope for the best, but in the end he only missed six weeks, and was back at it in early October. Maybe watching our other stallions walk past him en route to the covering shed was a good incentive to him,” Sangster quipped.
“Then he covered better than he has ever done. Plus, being such a fertile horse, he was popular at the back end of the season with a lot of mares who’d missed at their first goes with other stallions.”
Toronado will stand at an unchanged $88,000 (inc GST) fee this spring alongside his four barnmates I Am Immortal (I Am Invincible), Lofty Strike (Snitzel), Wooded (Wootton Bassett) and new shuttler Diego Velazquez (Frankel). Rising 18-year-old Puissance De Lune (Shamardal) is headed to retirement.
“We’ll be keeping Toronado’s service fee at the same level again, and that will give breeders a great chance to make good money, and I’m sure he’ll be well patronised again,” Sangster said.
Toronado will be represented by 12 lots at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale late this month, offered by a spread of breeders from Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and New Zealand.