Shuttle stallions the flavour of the day at Inglis

Cover image courtesy of Inglis

The Toronado and Too Darn Hot colts were purchased by Peter O’Brien, who was working alongside a group of close friends at Wednesday’s Sale and the son of Blue Point will head to Newgate Farm having been purchased by the nursery’s Stud Manager Jim Carey.

There had been a significant amount of hype surrounding Darley’s multiple Group 1-winning stallion Too Darn Hot’s first Southern Hemisphere crop and that excitement was only exacerbated by the strong results brought by his first Northern Hemisphere-bred weanlings last year, with 11 of his foals selling for an average of £105,812 (AU$186,500).

However, O’Brien told TDN AusNZ he needed little convincing to put his faith in weanlings by the young stallion having nine very nice-looking foals by the sire at Segenhoe Stud.

“There was a small group of us who decided we would go and buy five or six in this weanling sale season and once we saw him we weren’t leaving the grounds without him,” said O’Brien.

“The colt (Lot 242) is just an adonis and the mare has already produced a stakes horse and she herself is by Fastnet Rock, so he ticked every box. He was just the perfect mix of the two stallions; all the substance of Fastnet Rock and the quality of Too Darn Hot.

“He is a stallion I absolutely adore. We have a few foals on the farm by him and virtually all of them are good types.

“He had Too Darn Hot’s quality, which he throws into all his stock and you can pick them a mile away. This guy had an action to die for and just a lovely individual. It is seldom you get a foal at a foal sale which ticks every box. He was just a beautiful, beautiful colt.”

Consigned by Mike and Debbie O’Donnell’s Fairhill Farm and catalogued as Lot 242, the colt is the fifth foal out of Majesty (Fastnet Rock), making him a half-brother to Listed winner Lady Of Honour (No Nay Never {USA}) and O’Brien said the fact the mare is by Fastnet Rock was also a major positive for him.

“A massive draw for me and this colt was the Fastnet Rock mare, because I think he will be a future Champion Broodmare sire in the years to come,” he continued.

O’Brien made no secret of his admiration for Too Darn Hot, who stood his first season at Darley’s Kelvinside base in 2020 for a fee of $44,000 (inc GST).

“He was obviously a super racehorse and you won’t get a better bred stallion in the world and I am very keen to buy more of them,” said O’Brien. “Too Darn Hot is such an exciting horse to have in Australia and honestly I can’t see him fail here.

“I haven’t seen a stallion stamp his stock like Too Darn Hot does since Danehill, you can walk onto a farm and pick them out a mile away and I love that.

"He was obviously well-received in Europe, but to be perfectly honest that didn't have much of a bearing for me because we have nine of them on the farm and I was convinced already - but it is obviously heartening.”

Toronado effect

O’Brien and his buying partners had made their intentions to buy quality stock clear early on in the day when they purchased Lot 10 - a son of Toronado - from the Ferguson’s Bell River Thoroughbreds draft.

The Swettenham Stud shuttler Toronado has enjoyed a nearly flawless year on the race track, so it was no surprise to see that momentum carried through to the sales ring on Wednesday.

So far during the 2021/22 season, the stallion has sired 81 winners from 169 starters which fires at an impressive winners to runners strike-rate of 63.4 per cent, while his progeny have landed six stakes races in total headed by Shelby Sixtysix’s victory in the G1 The Galaxy H.

The son of High Chaparral’s (Ire) success on the racetrack has meant the stallion was subject to a significant fee hike and he will stand the upcoming breeding season at Adam Sangster’s Swettenham Stud for a fee of $88,000 (inc GST), having stood the 2021 season for a fee of $49,500 (inc GST).

While his influence in Australia is well-documented, O’Brien said a major attraction for him is the stallion’s burgeoning record in Hong Kong which was brought into stark focus on Sunday when his Australian-bred son Senor Toba took out the G3 Queen Mother Memorial Cup.

“He is arguably more successful here and in Hong Kong than he is in the Northern Hemisphere,” O’Brien explained. “When you are pinhooking a colt, a massive safety net is if they are successful in Hong Kong, because it opens that market up when you are selling it as a yearling.

“This colt was just one of those weanlings that came out and marched and just has the most incredible action. He is full of substance and balance and, again, we just had to have him.”

Standout foal to weanling

Meanwhile, James Ferguson of Bell River Thoroughbreds told TDN AusNZ that, while the Toronado colt had been a standout from the day he was born, they were not expecting him to fetch that sort of money.

“The foal was a belter from the minute he was born. They really wanted a colt and we were lucky enough to get a colt, so it really was a win-win all round,” said Ferguson.

“We did think we had a nice foal and we were thinking low $200,000s, so to get to $300,000 is a great result for our clients and completely beyond our expectations.”

Ferguson said it was a good time to offer a colt by the sire, given the success he has been having in Australia and abroad.

“Toronado is doing all the right things in Australia and as a result he has had a fee hike. I didn’t think he would go to the heights that he has gone to in these last 12 months, but he has gone quicker than what I thought he would do. What he is doing as a stallion is phenomenal and it just follows in a similar vein to the whole High Chaparral line,” Ferguson continued.

“I’ve actually never seen the stallion in the flesh, but I had Sam Matthews from Swettenham Stud view him a couple of weeks’ ago in the paddock and he said he was the spitting image of him, so I guess the price has reflected that and we got the result today we are rapt with.

“It was great to see the colt bought by Peter O’Brien. We had an outstanding result today and I hope Pete gets an outstanding result in a few months' time.”

The colt is the third foal out of the unraced Smart Missile mare Ain’t She Smart, who has produced one winner, Ain’tsheserious (Capitalist).

Ain’t She Smart is a daughter of Listed scorer Ain’tnofallenstar (Starcraft {NZ}), making her a half-sister to fellow Listed winner Ain’tnodeeldun (Dundeel {NZ}).

The colt’s third dam is the good-producing, stakes-winning mare Ain’t Seen Nothin (Nothin’ Lecia Dane) and she herself produced Group 3 winner Bachman (All American) and Singapore Champion Stepitup (Hussonet {USA}) and the dam of Stronger (Not A Single Doubt), who has landed six races headlined by a victory in this season’s G1 Centenary Sprint Cup at Sha Tin.

Weanlings on point

Darley’s Blue Point was a top-class performer on the track, headlined when he emulated fellow speedster Choisir in landing the G1 King’s Stand and Diamond Jubilee S. in the space of five days at Royal Ascot in 2019, and as a result there was a certain amount of expectation placed upon his first Southern Hemisphere-bred yearlings.

On Wednesday, he went some way to fulfilling people's lofty expectations when Jim Carey handed Royston and Treen Murphy’s Sledmere Stud a stunning result when he purchased a colt by the son of Shamardal (USA) for $290,000.

The colt is bred by RIFA Mustang, who raced the colt’s dam Lady Loire (Not A Single Doubt) having purchased her for $240,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2018.

Lady Loire was a winner at two and finished second in the Listed Morphettville Guineas as a 3-year-old and the Blue Point colt is her first foal.

The daughter of Not A Single Doubt is herself a out of the unraced mare Vintage Quality (Elusive Quality {USA}) and she is a half-sister to Listed winner Vintner (Hennessy {USA}), the dam of fellow stakes scorer Fitou (Street Cry {Ire}).

Meanwhile, Vintage Quality also counts Vintage Blend (Cape Cross {Ire}) among her other half-siblings and she produced G3 Doncaster Prelude winner Cellarman (Mossman) and Cellargirl (More Than Ready {USA}), who landed three races headed by a victory in the Listed Bill Carter S.

Carey told TDN AusNZ he was very impressed with the manner in which the colt dealt with the sale process and was particularly keen to secure him given he is out of a Not A Single Doubt mare who is proving to be a good broodmare sire.

“He was a good-moving colt,” said Carey. “He was very straightforward every time I looked at him and he paraded very well. He was bred by great breeders in RIFA Mustang and came off a fantastic farm in Sledmere.

“He will come back to Newgate and go out in the paddock and be presented at one of the yearling Sales next year, but we will first let him come back to the farm and let him develop through the spring.

“He was a really nice colt and a lot of good judges were underbidders. He is out of a Not A Single Doubt mare, who is becoming a very good broodmare sire and we were happy to bring back to the farm.”