Toronado now calls Australia home

The permanent change of address will come as no surprise to Australian breeders given the impact Toronado has had in Australia in the last few seasons.

Swettenham Stud’s General Manager Sam Matthews told TDN AusNZ everyone was delighted the stallion will be at the stud forever.

“Shuttling horses these days is very safe, but it is now nice that he gets that downtime between the seasons and unwind a little bit and enjoy being a horse,” he said. “You just never know what is going to happen in the world, so it is great to have him here forever and it is great for the breeders as well.”

Huge impact

With 11 of his 26 global stakes winners coming in Australia, headed by Group 1-winning pair Masked Crusader and the ever-popular Shelby Sixtysix and having begun his career Down Under at a fee of $22,000 (inc GST) the stallion has steadily been justifying fee increases since 2019.

Gallery: Toronado's (Ire) Australian Group 1 winners, images courtesy of Bronwen Healy

This spring he will cover mares at a career-high fee of $88,000 (inc GST), having stood the 2021 season for a fee of $49,500 (inc GST) and Matthews said that while the stallion was still popular at his now former European home of Haras de Bouquetot, from a risk and commercial perspective it made sense to stand him exclusively in Australia.

“He was really popular in the Northern Hemisphere and covered a lot of mares this year, but when he is standing for $8000 in one Hemisphere and $88,000 in the other, it doesn’t take a lot of calculations to work out what it takes to make it worthwhile and you also have to take into consideration insurance, travel costs,” explained Matthews.

“Al Shaqab has always been so easy to deal with and it was a very easy conversation to have and they make it very easy for us.”

Since arriving on these shores in 2015, Toronado has covered 1160 mares, producing 714 foals and in every year he has stood in the country his fertility has never dipped below 80 per cent, which Matthews said is one of the stallion’s many attributes.

“Another amazing thing about Toronado is that he is a weapon in the shed. He covers quickly, his fertility is outstanding and he enjoys his job,” said Matthews.

“We have always been very conscious not to over-exert him, so we never do more than four a day and when we do that, the following day will be three. He can handle the workload and he enjoys the workload; his labido and fertility are just world class.”

Popularity wins

After a fee jump this season, Matthews said the horse is as popular with breeders as ever and, even though the new figure places him in the echelons of some of the best stallions in Australia, he believes he still represents very good value.

“These sorts of horses are not easy to come by and you have to start them off at the right level and everyone can get a lick of the ice cream along the way. I think even now at $80,000 people know they can get a commercial horse they can breed to sell, or breed to race,” said Matthews.

“He is a highly commercial horse who represents good value and he will be the headline for our roster for many years to come. He was a tough horse himself and he throws an incredibly consistent type, you can walk into paddock and pick out the Toronados, so you know what you’re going to get.”

High-class sale ring performance

The 2021/22 season on the track was top-class for Toronado, with six of his sons or daughters landing stakes races between them, spearheaded by the aforementioned Shelby Sixtysix’s triumph in G1 The Galaxy and those track results were reflected in the sales rings when his stock was offered across Australia earlier this year.

During the 2022 yearling sale series, the stallion had 67 youngsters sell for an aggregate of $9,996,000 at an average of $149,194 including a top-priced colt of $850,000, which is a huge 120 per cent increase on the aggregate of sales he recorded in 2021, where 52 yearlings sold for $4,532,033 at an average of $87,154.

Matthews said they have always tried to ensure that his stud fee is slightly below what the market prices him at; a tactic they will continue to employ going forward.

“You can send basically any style of mare to him and a lot of different pedigree mares to him. When we increased him to $27,500 to $49,500 we still knocked back 150 mares and we have knocked back a lot of mares already this year,” he said.

“We have always tried to price him below where the market sees him so that breeders can get a return and there is still enough juice there for everyone. We will continue to price our horses below market expectations.

Eye-watering quality

With the stallion on the cusp of covering his eighth Australian book, Swettenham has made no secret as to the quality of mares set to visit the stallion this year.

“We have been selective again with his book of mares and we are very conscious we want to look after the breeders who have supported him and make sure they get the best result possible,” said Matthews.

“We have reserved a few nominations for a few mares that are retiring off the track and we wanted to make sure that we hand-selected the breeders as well as the mares. It is obviously not an easy job saying no to people, but his book of mares is absolutely exceptional.

“If you had said to us four years ago that this was the of book mares he was going to get we would have laughed it off. The quality of the book is eye-watering and even the mares we knocked back, you look at those and think: ‘Geez I’d like to own her’. But you have to knock them back because he can only cover so many.”

Toronado joins Darley’s Street Boss (USA) and Arrowfield’s Shalaa (Ire) as former shuttle stallions who have now found permanent homes in Australia.