Grinzinger Heart puts Toronado’s colts on notice

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

Toronado (Ire) has a reputation as a sire of colts, yet of his 49 stakes winners, he has 26 stakes-winning male progeny and 23 stakes-winning female progeny. The split is fairly even, although his Group 1 winner record is male-dominant at a five versus one strike rate.

However, Toronado's exceptional filly Grinzinger Heart victorious in Saturday’s G2 Sires’ Produce Stakes, illuminates his ability to also leave high quality fillies.

“I have had a handful of them (Toronados) actually, and they're probably all a little bit different, but I'd like a few more like her, certainly,” said Grinzinger Heart’s trainer Ben Brisbourne.

Toronado’s girls vs boys

Swettenham Stud’s Sam Matthews didn’t mince words when it came to discussing the perception around Toronado’s bias towards good colts and geldings.

“You mean the ridiculous perception that everybody's wrong about!” Matthews laughed.

“All the way through his career, he’s been basically even. For a while his fillies actually outperformed his colt and geldings in terms of stakes winners, but it’s been essentially 50/50 all the way through. Certainly, the colts sell better, but the fillies are just as good on the track.

“If anybody wants to actually do research and use statistics, they would see that, but the general market perception is that the colts are better. People talk about it at the pub and it sticks.

“All of our marketing last year for the (Inglis) Premier Sale was about how good his fillies and mares are, and it actually made very little difference to his sales results. I think it’s because of his sire line with High Chaparral having the same perception.”

Of High Chaparral (Ire)’s 23 Group 1 winners, seven are fillies. Of his successful sons, only So You Think (NZ) has more stakes winners than Toronado with 69. Dundeel (NZ) is next with 39, and he has a Group 1 colt bias too with only one filly among his nine Group 1 winners. So You Think sits evenly with six Group 1-winning fillies among his 12 Group 1 winners.

“We keep all the fillies we breed, and we buy fillies and mares to be broodmares and we are more than happy to buy Toronado mares. We think he’s going to be a very good broodmare sire and he’s already had a Group 1 winner in that realm.”

It seems that changing the perception, even with an exciting lightly raced Group 2 winning filly, is difficult.

Impressive draft outcomes for 2025

Getting black type on the page gave Grinzinger Heart's breeders Lustre Lodge a big boost.

“A nice way to break the maiden and put a bit of black type on the page, especially as a 2-year-old. She's a filly that is only going to improve with age so to do this already is a massive bonus for her,” said Brisbourne.

“John bought her up at the Magic Millions and paid sensible money for her, and she went into his system, and then came to us. She’s already been extremely well handled and educated before she got into our system and she's just been an absolute pleasure to have anything to do with.”

The sensible money? $110,000 from Lustre Lodge’s 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale draft. Wheeler’s reasoning for buying Grinzinger Heart had a lot to do with Toronado.

“I had some broodmares at the time and was trying to send one to Toronado. I like the Toronado stock, mainly because they are a very strong build of horse and they are tough,” said John Wheeler.

“I like the stallion and the mare had done enough, and at the price she was cheap for that sale. She’s a striking filly, and if you saw her the other day, she's quite a good specimen and she'll furnish further.

“I would've been happy to run her in a maiden, but Ben thought she'd done enough to justify running in the race and I trusted him. The only one he was worried about was the favourite.” The favourite, Zambales (Pinatubo {Ire}), ran second in the G2 VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes.

“I think we take her to Sydney to the Group 3 or the Sires, but we will wait a few more days before making a decision. That was a pretty hard run with her and the second horse moving away from the rest of them. Usually I don’t race my 2-year-olds more than once that year, keeping them for their 3-year-old year, but if you get one that can run and she's fit and healthy, then I'm happy to do it, particularly when the trainer is happy.

“It's good fun. I enjoy racing and it's a hobby for me. I buy them with a smile and sell them with a bigger smile.”

A draft to make everyone smile

Lustre Lodge took 10 yearlings to the 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and two of them are already Group quality juveniles, led by Grinzinger Heart.

The other is Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained filly By Choice (Written By) who was a winner on debut, and third in both the R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic and G2 Sweet Embrace Stakes. Her trainers, along with Kestrel Thoroughbreds, purchased her for $220,000 and she’s already earned over $400,000 in her four starts to date.

The boutique farm, located near Wyong racecourse, doesn’t always sell their yearlings under their own banner. In 2026, their whole crop has been offered in other drafts, with co-owner Glen Spratt pointing to the economic realities of taking a few horses to the sales.

“We didn’t prep any yearlings for sale this year,” Spratt said. “They are all going through other drafts. We probably didn't have the quality this year that we did the previous year. It's the expense of it too. You have got to get them up there, you need to have the staff there and all those sorts of things, so sometimes the right thing is to put them in other drafts.”

Lustre Lodge have 25 mares on the farm. “We breed to sell, and we're trying to concentrate a bit more on quality rather than numbers. I think having a small farm, all our weanlings are getting handled regularly. We do notice that they're a lot more used to hanging around people when you're handling them all the time.”

Lustre Lodge’s process is obviously working with Grinzinger Heart winning the G2 VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes at her second start, having run fourth in the Listed Talindert Stakes on debut. Despite that good effort on debut, she was overlooked by punters.

“I am just a bit disappointed as I didn't back her yesterday, 50 to one. I was out playing golf and my phone started to go beep, beep, beep. And I thought, I'm going to get in trouble, having my phone on at golf!”

Upgrading a boutique broodmare band

The notion of upgrading a broodmare band is one that every Thoroughbred breeder continually works on. In 2021, boutique farm Lustre Lodge took a $500,000 gamble at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale on the broodmare Veravarti (NZ) (O’Reilly), and the risk paid off on Saturday when her juvenile filly Grinzinger Heart won the G2 VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes.

Veravati was in foal to I Am Invincible, foaling down the now 4-year-old gelding Banjora for Lustre Lodge. He is unbeaten in three starts and was sold by Lustre Lodge for $400,000 at the 2023 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale for Ellerslie Lodge and Bryce Heys. Grinzinger Heart is the fifth foal of dual winner Veravarti who has a yearling colt by Russian Revolution and a filly foal by Capitalist.

“We bought the mare Veravarti and she went to I Am Invincible three times,” said Spratt.

“We've been a big supporter of Tornado up here at Lustre Lodge. So we sent Veravarti down to get covered by Toronado and the result was Grinzinger Heart. John Wheeler bought two horses from us last January up at the Magics, and Grinzinger Heart is one of them.”

The other yearling he purchased from Lustre Lodge’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale draft was South Yarra Miss (Maurice {Jpn}) who cost $150,000. She is in work with Danny O’Brien and ran second on debut at Seymour in mid-January behind Jacaranda (Home Affairs) who has run fifth twice in two Listed races since then.

“Grinzinger Heart wasn’t exactly the same type as the earlier foals. If you look at Banjora, he was a big burly type who was about 600 kilos. We weren’t trying to breed a 2-year-old (with the Toronado mating). We thought we'd be breeding one that would probably more like a 3-year-old. But obviously the trainer has got this one up and going early and it’s pleasing to see.

“We put Veravarti in foal to Hellbent (this spring) who is a son of I Am Invincible. It’s so hard to find value stallions at the moment that allows us to breed good horses that will appeal to people in the sales ring.”

Veravarti is a daughter of Listed Hawke’s Bay Guineas victrix and G1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas-placed Vedodara (NZ) (Kreisler {Ire}), making Veravarti a half-sister to G1 Avondale Gold Cup winner Sharvasti (NZ) (Montjeu {Ire}), G3 Hawke’s Bay Guineas winner Shastri (NZ) (Stravinsky {USA}) and dual Group 3 winner Bhandara (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}).

Where to now for Grinzinger Heart

With only two starts under her belt, there is a big future ahead for Grinzinger Heart, and trainer Ben Brisbourne has many options to contemplate.

“She's a quite a big scopey sort of filly. I mentioned (post race) yesterday that she looked like she'd grown an inch in the last two weeks. She’s still got plenty more to do physically. She's a nice product and temperament wise, she's almost bomb proof at home. She’s not flashy, she just does what she is told,” said Brisbourne.

Last year’s winner of the G2 VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes, Vinrock (I Am Invincible) came to Sydney where he won the G1 Sires’ Produce Stakes at his next start. He’s a Listed winner this season at three and has yet to be seen this autumn. With an honour roll that includes young sire Traffic Warden, who trained on to win the G2 Run To The Roses at three, and G1 George Ryder Stakes winner Veight (NZ) (Grunt) in the past four years, this race has been a big starting point for some outstanding horses. G1 Caulfield Cup winner Jameka (Myboycharlie {Ire}) won it, as did multiple Group 1 winner and sire All Too Hard.

“She pulled up great. We're not sure what the program is yet. John obviously is happy to campaign her as aggressively as we'd like. He’s a real sportsman and likes to see his horses run at as high a level as possible.

“We'll sit on the fence for two or three days, but possibly we’ll put her away and save her for a 3-year-old career. There's so much prizemoney and so many good options for a horse with her credentials in that year. And there's not too much more she can really do as a 2-year-old, there's only a couple of races which could better her CV at this stage. It's a nice situation to be in. She's been to Flemington twice already, so she's had that exposure to Metro level too, and it's only going to stand during good stead going forward.

“She’s a big scopey filly. The thing about her is that she's such a beautiful moving horse. You can tell that in her races. She really has got a big action and she's so clean winded and has never missed a beat at home. Touch wood, she’ll be very sound for her whole career and we'll have plenty of fun with her going forward.”

Reflection of the mare’s distance preference

Another way that Toronado’s stock are changing is that he’s getting more precious runners with his more recent crops, and that’s been a deliberate decision by Swettenham Stud.

“This was the crop where he first went to $80,000. Even the year before with his 3-year-olds, when he went to $45,000, was when we started targeting more speed mares, more sharp early mares, and we actually knocked back a lot of mares, even when he wasn't full, because they weren't the right mares,” said Matthews.

“Initially we had been breeding milers to him and we were getting more mile plus type horses, then we targeted more speed mares. A lot of our big supporters like Seamus Mills and Boomer (Craig Rounsefell) and those guys that send a lot of mares to him, all started sending speed mares, and I think that's what's allowed us to have some sharper earlier ones. He had Masked Crusader early in his career, but now he’s starting to get more and more sharper ones and I think that trend will continue.”

With Toronado covering a better class of mare now at a well-earned higher fee, the farm expects his results to keep accumulating.

“Considering he started at $20,000 and he was a shuttle horse, the mares he covered initially were good but not great. He carries the sprinter gene, even though he was a miler himself, so if you send him a speed mare, you’re going to get speed. Whereas if you send something that's gets over a bit of a trip, then you're likely to get something that can get 2000 metres plus.

“He’s bringing class and toughness and soundness to the table, and the type of mare you send him will dictate the distance the foal will get.”

If Swettenham Stud's theory on the type of mares sent to Toronado influences his outcomes, then Grinzinger Heart will likely get out to Classic distances at three.

Hong Kong cements the colt bias

This season, Toronado has sired the winners of the first two legs of the Hong Kong 4-year-old Series with Little Paradise winning the Listed Classic Mile and Stormy Grove winning the Listed Classic Cup. The Hong Kong Derby, the final leg, runs on March 22, and at this stage, it looks like Toronado will have five runners in the race.

“He’s going to have five runners in the Hong Kong Derby. Obviously that's Hong Kong's premier race and one that they all want to win, so that’s what Hong Kong buyers are after. They're trying to buy Toronado’s to win the Derby,” said Matthews.

“People know that they can buy them (Toronado colts and geldings) and if they're clean, they can trade them pretty quickly and pretty easily. It means that people are happy to pay more knowing they've got an immediate out, if they win a trial, they can get $600,000 for them off a trial win. It’s an easy way for people to pay a bit more for them as yearlings, because you aren’t just buying a colt that’ll be a gelding here. You're buying a colt that's more than likely going to be a gelding that's a very good chance to be traded.

“However, I don't think it will have a huge representation in years to come in the Derby because we do have more of those sharper mares who have gone to him recently. So they won't necessarily make the Derby distance as much as what they have been in previous years, but to have that percentage of the field is enormous.”

Temperament is a huge factor for horses coping with the Hong Kong environment and Toronado has horses like Group 1 winner Victor The Winner, Helios Express, Senor Toba, and the latest batch of exciting 4-year-olds all performing there.

“They're sound horses. They like firm ground. but also have the temperament to be happy to live the life that you live in Hong Kong, which is different to the life that you live in Australia. They can adapt to that and they're happy and comfortable there and they like their regime and he's very much the same, the stallion.

“He likes a structured environment. He's down to the minute that horse as far as where he goes and what he does and he loves it that way and we adapt to that.”

Just like people, some horses thrive on routine while others prefer flexibility, and Toronado is a routine lover. So what happens when he doesn’t get that?

“When he was out injured, and all our other stallions were covering, he wasn't happy. He was proper dummy spitting! He likes to stand in a certain point in his day yards, he'll find his own little spot and then if anything is out by half an hour, or an hour, he’ll start to call out or muck around in his box a little bit.”