Toronado’s Theblade ‘the real deal’
Michael Hawkes called Theblade (Toronado) “the real deal” after the colt made a hugely impressive debut at Randwick-Kensington on Wednesday.
The son of Toronado (High Chaparral) is Black Caviar’s (Bel Esprit) nephew, being out of the champion sprinter’s unraced half-sister Brigite (Casino Prince), herself a sister to Team Hawkes’ former top-level racer turned successful sire All Too Hard.
Starting as the $3 favourite for Wednesday’s 1150-metre maiden handicap, the Team Hawkes-trained three-year-old streaked clear of his five rivals to beat Alpine Ski (Exceed And Excel) by 5.7 lengths, with a further 0.5 lengths back to Johnny The Kid (Trapeze Artist) in third.
Theblade had been set to make his debut in the final weeks of last season, but was scratched at the barriers for a two-year-old race at Warwick farm after hitting his head.
“It’s disappointing when you set horses for races and that happens,” Michael Hawkes, who trains in partnership with his brothers Wayne and John, said.
“It was all about trying to win as a two-year-old with him, but once that backfired two weeks ago, we’ve had to opt towards this race and we didn’t expect the rain.
“We’ve always said to the owners, the horse has got plenty of ability, we’re yet to see it. Today we’ve seen it, obviously on a wet track, which is another positive.
“He is the real deal and hopefully he can go on to bigger and better things.”
Hawkes said having another member of All Too Hard’s family in their care was special, especially given the involvement of Gilgai Farm’s Rick Jamieson, who bred Black Caviar.
“It is another generation and with these colts, we’re lucky enough to train them and have the patient owners that we do,” he said.
“But when you get a family we’ve had a lot to do with – and Gilgai [Farm] is in the horse as well and they’ve bred this bloke, Rick Jamieson obviously knows how to breed a winner – it’s exciting to think that a horse like this and of this calibre, could hopefully get to the top one day.”