Toronado’s dynamic rise continues with increase to $88,000 as Swettenham release fees for six-strong roster
Toronado’s (High Chaparral) stellar season on the track and in the sale ring has earned the Swettenham Stud figurehead a further increase in service fee to $88,000 (all fees inc GST) for the forthcoming breeding season as the leading Victorian operation announced their completed six-strong roster.
The line up includes new shuttler Wooded (Wootton Bassett), who was revealed in ANZ Bloodstock News last week, at an introductory fee of $22,000, as well as Rubick (Encosta De Lago) ($22,000), I Am Immortal (I Am Invincible) ($13,750), Highland Reel (Galileo) ($16,500) and Puissance De Lune (Shamardal) ($14,300).
Toronado stood his first four seasons at Swettenham for a fee of $22,000, earning an increase to $27,500 in 2019, before commanding a fee of $49,500 last year and, having covered 197, 210 and 172 mares in the last three seasons respectively, Swettenham’s Sam Matthews believes the best is yet to come for the stallion, who is bidding to break into the top ten in the sires premiership for the first time this year.
“He’ll be fully booked very, very quickly and we still feel he’s incredible value (at $88,000). He’s a horse that probably should have stood for more last year and probably should stand for more this year, but it’s important for us that the breeders get a good return along the way,” Matthews told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“On what he’s done, not only this season but in past years both in the sale ring and on the racetrack, it’s been absolutely incredible. If you look at him up against some of those horses at a similar price point and he definitely represents excellent value.
“His now yearlings are his best crop to date and then they get significantly better the year after. He’s done all this off a $20,000 service fee and from what he’s done with nice, but moderate, mares, we’re excited to see what he can do with better quality mares.”
Toronado’s 11 southern hemisphere-bred stakes winners to date have all been conceived off his basement price, and include six geldings and five fillies who have won over distances from 1200 metres to 2200 metres.
He added a second Group 1 winner this season with the stallion playing his part in the incredible rise of Shelby Sixtysix from country traveller to Golden Slipper day elite-level winner when the Danny Williams-trained five-year-old won The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m) at Rosehill in March.
Shelby Sixtysix is among six stakes winners for Toronado this campaign, with black type wins for Masked Crusader, Toronado’s William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner from last season, Tassie sensation Still A Star, who won the Rose Of Kingston Stakes (Gr 2, 1410m) in October, and three-year-old, Bob Peters-owned Western Australian Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m) winner Treasured Star, seeing the sire placed ninth in the sires premiership with progeny earnings just shy of $9 million.
“He can throw sprinters and be a trade option, he can throw fillies, he can genuinely do it all. He’s only a young horse so there’s still so much ahead of him,” Matthews added.
“They haven’t taken long to get there, he’s always had those consistent results with better results year-on-year. A horse like him, he was up and going early himself, but his horses just keep getting better with age.
“To have a horse like Shelby Sixtysix to have gone from where he was to where he is, if you’d have told me two years ago he would have been a Group 1 winner, I don’t think anyone would have thought that to be possible, but it just goes to show that with a bit of maturity they can certainly get there, and I’m very confident there’s quite a few more that we’ve already seen on the track that will end up being Group 1 winners for him.”
In the sale ring this year Toronado’s southern hemisphere-bred yearlings have averaged $153,531, a figure up from an average of $87,154 in 2021, with colts selling for up to $460,000 at Inglis Premier and $850,000 at the recent Inglis Easter yearling sale at Riverside.
“To average what he did at Premier ($150,823) from 37 horses it was exceptional and he’s doing this still from a $25,000 service fee,” Matthews said. “When you look at other horses in the top ten, he’s coming in off one of the lower service fees and getting one of the best results, so it’s only upwards from here.”
Another stallion Matthews believes has the best ahead of him is Rubick (Encosta De Lago), who relocated to Swettenham for his first season in Victoria last year where he stood for $27,500. This year his fee is reduced to $22,000, but with over 170 two-year-olds and yearlings on the ground, the former crop including Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) third Jacquinot, the scope is there for breeders ‘looking for a horse to punt’.
“The ones that have just been sold as yearlings were off a $38,500 service fee, so with what he’s got coming through it’s such a great time to punt a horse like Rubick, he’s got so much coming through and he should get a nice book this year,” Matthews said.
I Am Immortal, the dual two-year-old stakes-winning son of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), will have his first weanlings presented at the sales next month, with the stallion standing his third season at stud for an unchanged $13,750.
“He’s had incredible support from some great breeders, both within his shareholders in Victoria and some great breeders from around Australia,” Matthews said.
“I couldn’t tell you the last time we had a crop of foals and it didn’t throw a single chestnut. His first foals that came out were 57-58 kilos and they’ve got great bone, great scope and there’ll be a few nice ones at the weanling sales. But it’s just the consistency of them, they are the spitting images of what he is.”
The line up is completed by Highland Reel (Galileo), who celebrated Group 2 success in Europe with his first northern hemisphere juvenile crop last year, and stands at an unchanged fee of $16,500, while Puissance De Lune (Shamardal), who this season has had stakes-winning three-year-old Spirit Of Gaylard, will stand at a reduced fee of $14,300.
“Puissance De Lune covered two big books of 150 plus so the mares that are being covered this year, by the time those progeny are being sold those horses will be three and four and just hitting their straps,” Matthews said. “At the $5,000 discount on what he was last year, there’s not many horses at that price point that you can get into and then get a result.
“Highland Reel has only had a handful of runners to the track but the trainers are talking them up. We didn’t expect him to get many two-year-olds. In his second crop of yearlings this year he had an equal-high sale topper of $180,000, so that was encouraging.”
Matthews was yesterday also celebrating news of a promotion to general manager – operations and nominations at Swettenham Stud, while Marcus Heritage returns to the Victorian operation in the role of nominations and Barry Faulds is promoted to stud manager.
“Adam (Sangster) has been incredible to work for since I started and obviously the business is going very well,” said Matthews. “I’ll still be involved from a nominations point of view but for the business to grow as it has been, it’s a great opportunity for myself and incredibly exciting. The most important part for me is that I’ll have a little bit more exposure to some people and I’m very proud.”