Matings mix: 'He’s just a marvellous stallion'

Cover image courtesy of Torryburn Stud

When Torryburn Stud went to $625,000 to secure a modest racemare by the name of Miss Interiors (Flying Spur) at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale in 2017, only the most devoted of optimists could have predicted the seismic impact she would have on the farm over the next five years.

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Fast-forward to the present day, and that $625,000 outlay looks like one of the shrewdest pieces of business the Inglis auditorium has ever played host to, for Miss Interiors is a now a half-sister to a Champion First Season Sire and has produced a multiple Group 1-winning stallion, a stakes-winning stallion prospect and a million-dollar yearling from her first three foals.

There is of course a brains trust behind those three matings, and Torryburn, which is owned by John Cornish and operated by his son Brett in conjunction with Stud Manager Melissa Copelin, has systems in place to ensure that the production line of high-quality racehorses continues to bear fruit.

It is a process that starts as early as January according to Copelin, after the team have had their first feel for how the yearling season may pan out.

“We start planning our matings pretty much straight after Magic Millions,” she revealed.

“We’ve then been able to see what people have brought to the sale by stallions that we haven’t bred to yet. It’s always good to see them and see what people are interested in.

“We have a regroup of what sold well and what the trainers were looking at, especially if trainers were buying the progeny of a stallion in his second and third year at the sales. That shows that they have something good by him in the stable.

“Those Magic Millions horses then go to the breakers and we definitely listen to the breaker feedback. There is usually one standout stallion who everyone raves about, and that’s very useful for us.

“Deep Field is one example. There were a couple of new stallions that year, Shooting To Win and a few others. I asked the breakers and they all said Deep Field, which turned out pretty well.”

Once the sales results have been analysed and the breakers have been consulted, the next part of the process for the Torryburn team is categorising their stock into A-grade and B-grade mares, before delving into each pedigree and identifying the most suitable stallion.

There are a number of factors which need to be carefully considered at this juncture according to Copelin, none more so than the physical attributes of both mare and stallion.

“Some people are pedigree pedigree pedigree, but you can’t sell an ugly horse,” she explained. “Type and soundness are just as important. They’ve got to be tough and they’ve got to be able to gallop.

“You need to breed where your weaknesses are. If your mare is weak behind, then you want to make sure that you’re putting a correct, strong stallion over her.

“If you’re lacking some speed, put some speed in there. I mean speed on speed is great as well, but I think breeding what you don’t have serves you well.

“Temperament is really important for us as well. If we have a tricky mare then we have to make sure that we don’t send her to a sireline that’s going to make the resultant foal have a bad temperament.

“Sound in the wind and sound in the feet – that’s really important as well. Your broodmares have to be producing sound horses for you.”

Having sold a million-dollar lot at four of the past five Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sales, it is by no means arbitrary to say that Torryburn is no stranger to sales ring success, but that is not the be-all and end-all for Copelin and her team, who place just as much emphasis on the racetrack success of their graduates.

“We want to breed really sound racehorses that people will want to come back and keep buying,” she said. “There is no point in having a beautiful sales horse that makes lots of money but can’t run past the age of three.

“While we need the sale ring money to keep us going, that’s not the end game. The end game is the racehorse. People don’t remember what you sold your racehorses for, they just remember which ones win and do well.

“The more success you have on the track, the easier it is to sell racehorses.”

As well as its impressive list of high-profile sales graduates, which includes the likes of Hot King Prawn (Denman), Dixie Blossoms (Street Sense {USA}) and Terravista (Captain Rio {GB}), Torryburn’s success on the racetrack has also come by way of its own race fillies and mares, many of whom now form part of the farm’s 70-strong broodmare band.

The instantly recognisable white silks with the red love heart are a regular fixture at racetracks across the eastern seaboard, and Copelin confessed that soaring prices at the broodmare sales have prompted a slight change of tack in the way Torryburn’s broodmare band is put together.

“The last couple of years we sold all of our good fillies, but with the market so strong with broodmare prices, we can’t afford to buy them,” she explained. “We have really sound, beautiful fillies from these families that we like, so we’ll keep about five this year and we’re actually going to start racing our third and fourth generation-bred fillies.

Gallery: Some of Torryburn Stud's high-profile graduates

“We’re not mare traders, so we really want to set our mares up and give them every opportunity. We really try to get that first mating with a proven stallion, and if we can get a good horse in her first two foals, then she is pretty much set up for life.

“Obviously, we do sell mares, but we are not in the habit of flipping mares over. Any time someone buys a yearling from us, they know that it has been a set plan with a lot of thought gone into it. Their success is our success really.

“Because we don’t trade, when we do buy mares we invest in them and they are here to stay. We’re a little bit different to other operations, the Cornish’s are horse lovers and we invest in families. It’s an emotional thing buying a broodmare, they become part of our family and we want them to do well.”

Getting affairs in order

Given their close ties to Home Affairs, whom they bred and sold as a yearling, the team at Torryburn are better placed than most when it comes to selecting suitable mares for the G1 Coolmore Stud S. winner. But you would be foolish for thinking that five of their finest are heading his way out of sentiment alone.

The quintet is spearheaded by The Pinnacle (So You Think {NZ}), a well-related Group 3 winner whose first foal by I Am Invincible fetched $1 million at this year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale. The Lonhro mare Apamurra (USA), who counts the likes of Alizee (Sepoy), Tassort and Astern as close relations, is also pencilled in for Home Affairs having visited Medaglia D’Oro (USA), Zoustar, Exceed And Excel and I Am Invincible in her first four years at stud.

“Apamurra has an I Am Invincible going to Easter who is a cracking sort, and her first foal is a two-time winner who has been sold to Hong Kong,” Copelin said. “She’s from one of the best families in the Stud Book and she’s a really neat mare. She is the perfect type for Home Affairs and we had her picked out for him long before he was off to stud.

“She has been given the opportunity to go to four proven horses, and now she can go to the new one on the block.”

Also booked to Home Affairs is Group 2 winner Serena Miss (NZ) (Iffraaj {GB}), while her daughter Centimental (Snitzel), herself placed in Group company when runner-up to Away Game (Snitzel) in the G3 Widden S. as a juvenile, is booked to visit Deep Field for her maiden cover.

While unsurprisingly keen to support their most prized graduate during his debut season at stud, Torryburn will also be doing its utmost to breed the next Home Affairs, and much to Copelin’s delight, the team have the perfect tools at hand to do just that.

Miss Interiors, the dam of Home Affairs and another future stallion prospect in Aysar (Deep Field), is carrying a full relation to Coolmore’s dual Group 1 winner and is booked to visit I Am Invincible for a third time later this year.

Copelin is understandably effusive in her praise for the son of Invincible Spirit (Ire), who was recently crowned Champion Sire for the first time in his fairytale stud career.

“Vinnie is such a good stallion to work with. The Mitchells do such a good job with him and we have had brilliant success with him,” she said.

“He’s had our best sales results and obviously our best racehorse. He’s just a marvellous stallion and we’re sending the dam of Home Affairs back to him. Home Affairs was an amazing-looking horse, so hopefully we can get that again.

“You can’t help but wonder what could be done if you mix it up a little, but it will be I Am Invincible for her for a couple of years now. We’d be crazy not to.”

The famous adage dictates that lightning rarely strikes twice, but that hasn’t stopped the Torryburn team from doubling down on their efforts to make it happen, by securing a mare who bears a striking resemblance to Miss Interiors – and in more than just one way.

The mare in question is California Rogusta, an unraced daughter of Fastnet Rock who fetched $1 million as a yearling before being snapped up by Torryburn for $350,000 at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale earlier this year, will also be covered by Yarraman Park's resident Champion Sire.

California Augusta descends from a beautiful family and is out of an Encosta De Lago half-sister to four stakes winners, including multiple Group 1-winning stallion Holy Roman Emperor (Ire), who has produced the likes of G1 Caulfield Cup winner Mongolian Khan and G1 Oakleigh Plate heroine Sheidel (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) on these shores.

“She was on our shortlist just because of her pedigree, she’s from a different branch of that Fanfreluche family and she was a $1 million yearling,” Copelin explained. “Physically, she is so identical to Miss Interiors. A glamour mare, where everything is in the right place.

“She was in foal to Deep Field, when we bought her, as was Miss Interiors. I think it was a bit of déjà vu really. There is a bit of nostalgia there and we will see in a couple of years if we’re right.”

Strong support

While I Am Invincible has undoubtedly been Torryburn’s most lucrative stallion when it comes to sales ring success, he has another high-end stallion hot on his heels in the shape of Widden’s Zoustar, who will once again receive strong support from the Paterson Valley-based operation.

Group 1 placegtetter Imperial Lass (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}), who foaled a filly by gun sire Wootton Bassett (GB) on Sunday night, is set for a date with Zoustar for the second time after her yearling filly by the stallion sold for $900,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Sale earlier this year.

Imperial Lass has already produced an excitement machine in G3 Carbine Club S. winner Straight Arron (Fastnet Rock), who is set to target the prestigious 4-Year-Old Classic Series following his exportation to Hong Kong.

“Chris (Waller) was really excited about Straight Arron and we always listen to the trainer,” Copelin revealed. “Putting the Fastnet Rock speed over Imperial Lass worked, so the speed from Zoustar should be the same.

“The Zoustar filly we sold at Inglis Easter for $900,000 was just gorgeous. We were so ecstatic with that yearling that we wanted to go back to him. Everything worked out with that mating – physical, type and temperament – and we would like another one just the same."

Copelin will be hoping the team have just the right mare in Jedastar (I Am Invincible), the Group 3-placed sister to R. Listed Inglis Millennium winner Rulership, who forced Torryburn to part with a million dollars at last year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, becoming the farm’s most expensive purchase ever in the process.

“That was a lot of money,” Copelin quipped. “We had our list and we kept getting beaten on everything, so Brett just decided to save all the money for one horse, and we decided to buy the fastest one in foal to a stallion that we love in Zoustar.

“Whoever planned that mating was very clever. Her first filly by him is a beautiful physical and I don’t know if she is getting sold. She is an absolute rocket - really balanced, sound and correct. That’s why we are going back.”

A different flavour

Copelin finds herself in familiar territory when planning which mares will visit the likes of Zoustar and I Am Invincible, but by her own admission she is not quite as at ease when it comes to mating mares with Maurice (Jpn), the Japanese shuttle sensation who has burst onto the Australian scene courtesy of Group 1-winning flagbearers Hitotsu and Mazu.

The latter proved to be the inspiration behind the decision to send Torryburn’s well-bred stakes placegetter Toryjoy (Street Cry {Ire}) to Maurice this year, although Copelin confessed to a certain degree of blind faith in the champion son of Screen Hero (Jpn).

“The Japanese blood is foreign to me, but I’ve just got a good feeling about him,” she said. “I’m not sure about the right types of mares for him yet, but we’re sending him some nice ones and he’s somewhat proven at a good price, compared to some other stallions. Some good stallions are just good, no matter what way you breed them, and I think he has the potential to fit into that category.”

Such has been Maurice’s success in his short stud career to date, Copelin is willing to overlook that his pedigree does not contain some of the key elements that the team would normally insist upon in a prospective mating.

“We didn’t jump on him in the first season. Some stallions we will sit and wait, and that was the case with him,” she added.

“I think he had a few non-believers at the start, a lot of people didn’t quite like him. But I think that’s just because we’re not used to seeing those types of horses. We’re used to our colonial speed horses and the European style stallions, and the Japanese stallions are just made a little different.

“We supported him last year at a good price and we have two mares foaling to Maurice this year. He commands a bit more now, but he’s certainly done the job already in a short amount of time.

“I don’t think you can be so closed-minded about everything. You can say a stallion must have this and that, but if you start to see a pattern with horses racing well that are sound, strong animals, that’s what we want to breed.

“You have to be open minded with horses like him.”

Torryburn may have played the waiting game with Maurice, but the same cannot be said of Deep Field, whom they have supported in great numbers ever since he first entered the breeding barn at Newgate Farm.

The son of Northern Meteor will once again be the chosen stallion for The Soloist (Smart Missile), a mare who holds a special place in the hearts of all the team given that she is a half-sister to the Torryburn-bred and sold Hong Kong Group 1 winner Hot King Prawn.

“With the Hong Kong appeal of Deep Field, and with Hot King Prawn up there, commercially it’s a no-brainer to go to Deep Field,” Copelin explained.

“We have supported him every year since day dot. The Soloist’s first colt was by Deep Field and we sold him at Easter for $750,000. He was one of the nicest colts we have ever bred. That’s why she goes back to Deep Field and I think he’s a good price now.”

A word of warning

After lamenting that they were unable to find a mare to breed to exciting freshman sire St Mark’s Basilica (Fr), whom she described as ‘the most beautiful stallion we’ve ever seen’, Copelin went on to wax lyrical about Russian Revolution’s blistering start to life at stud.

The son of Snitzel, who is a half-brother to Torryburn’s darling mare Miss Interiors, will cover Group 1 placegetter Denmagic (Denman) this year, a mare who has already produced a $1.1 million yearling for the farm.

Elsewhere, Axiomatic (O’Reilly {NZ}), a half-sister to exciting young sire Xtravagant (NZ) and multiple Group 1 placegetter He’s Remarkable (NZ), is set for a date with Rosemont Stud’s progressive stallion Shamus Award.

Torryburn will also be supporting Hellbent and Wootton Bassett this year, who were singled out as stallions standing at very good value, but that value is few and far between according to Copelin, who feels that stud fees are sitting at a precarious level.

“I’m glad I’m not paying them (stud fees). There isn’t much value to be found,” she said.

“Our budget was noticeably bigger this year, so it really makes you think about sending the right mares and not making a mistake.

“It must be tough for some breeders. We are lucky that we have had a good year and can send mares to those top stallions, but they are definitely expensive.

“I don’t think it’s sustainable and this coming sales season will be telling. We’ll just have to see.

“We definitely have it in the back of our minds that we have to be a little bit reserved and careful, especially when helping clients out – says us that are sending five mares to Home Affairs!”

Caution may be a wise choice in the current economic climate, but Torryburn need only think of the deeds of Miss Interiors when deciding whether to throw caution to the wind.

Table: Some of the matings Torryburn Stud are planning for the 2022 season