Diego Velazquez at $27,500 as Swettenham fees hold solid

Swettenham Stud have revealed their 2026 stallion fees, and a hale and hearty Toronado (Ire) retains his spot at the head of the roster. After another season where clients remained loyal, Nominations and Bloodstock Manager Marcus Heritage shared that the stud was content to keep most of their fees the same.

Toronado in hot demand

After illness threatened to halt Toronado’s season in its tracks, he bounced back to full health ahead of schedule, and in time to serve 84 mares in the spring of 2025. Heritage confirmed that the stallion was back to full health and that they anticipated a full book in 2026.

“He’s back to full health, so it’s exciting to look forward to this season,” he said. “He’s had a really good run over the last few weeks with Stormy Grove and Little Paradise, and also Grinzinger Heart, the 2-year-old stakes winner.”

It’s been a banner year for Toronado, who’s 134 winners puts him second only to Capitalist in Australia and has him well on the way to eclipse the 165 winners he produced last season. At the beginning of March, his daughter Grinzinger Heart prevailed in the G2 VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes after running fourth in the Listed Talindert Stakes on debut, and Royal Toronado became a new stakes winner in the same month when winning the Listed Pinjarra Cup.

In Hong Kong, Stormy Grove and Little Paradise lead his 10 winners, respectively taking home the Listed Hong Kong Classic Cup and the Listed Hong Kong Classic Mile. He is third in the jurisdiction in both winners and prizemoney, although Acclamation (GB) only ekes ahead in the latter thanks to Romantic Warrior (Ire).

At the recent Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, he sold six yearlings for an average of $380,000 and a median of $400,000, with Hong Kong keen again on his offspring.

Despite more strong results in the ring and on the track, the Swettenham team have resisted the urge to put his fee up, keeping him at $88,000 (inc GST).

“I’ve already had a few calls asking about him, because they thought he might have been going up,” said Heritage. “But we've held firm and we expect him to be back covering a full book again this season.

“The market's showing a pretty good appetite for his yearlings, and even a lot of his fillies making good money too. I think people are starting to recognise that he's going to be a pretty handy broodmare sire and we're seeing a lot of those fillies with big pedigrees selling accordingly.”

Diego Velazquez follows in Toronado's footsteps

Another shuttle sire joins the roster in 2026; Diego Velazquez (Ire), who was announced at the end of 2025 in tandem with his debut at The National Stud, will shuttle south at a fee of $27,500 (inc GST). The G1 Prix Jacques le Marois-winning son of Frankel (GB) follows a path well-trodden in the past by Toronado himself.

“We have had a lot of shuttlers over the years, but he's been the one that's had the most traction before the fees announced and leading into the season,” said Heritage. “He's been really well received.”

There is one major reason for that.

“I think it really is the Frankel factor,” Heritage said. “The Australian markets have wanted the right son of Frankel for a long time, and we've been looking for the right son of Frankel for a long time as well. He's been well received and we expect him to be pretty popular.

“I think the price especially is very fair and no one's been deterred by that so far. They've all thought that's pretty good value. He was a Group 1 winner, and a very good two, three, and 4-year-old as well.

“He had real longevity, which is obviously important when we race for so much prizemoney down here. If you can breed horses that can race over multiple seasons, that's really going to keep the buyers interested as well as the breeders.”

It’s a new facet to a broad roster, and Heritage believes that breadth and variety are the key factors that ensure that Swettenham maintains a loyal base of clients for their stallions.

“Obviously Toronado missed a period of the season, which was hard for everyone, but the other stallions all covered the numbers we expected them to,” he said. “We have a good client base that support us every year, and a roster with a lot to offer, so year on year our numbers were pretty similar.

“There has been plenty of challenges already this year and we expect to feel the pinch in certain areas, but that hasn't deterred us. We've held firm with our fees because we certainly don't want to pull the rug from underneath the people that have supported those stallions in previous years, and ultimately we've crossed them pretty fair in the first place, so there's no reason to change too much.”

I Am Immortal proves popular at value fee

Likewise, the roster’s developing bread and butter stallion I Am Immortal, whose eldest crop are 4-year-olds, will remain at the same fee of $8800 (inc GST).

“He covered over 100 mares last season, which is rare for a sub-$10,000 stallion to be covering those sort of numbers in the current market, but I think he's really asserted himself as the value stallion in Victoria and that's been seen in the racetrack,” said Heritage.

Only two sub-$10,000 service fee stallions served more mares than I Am Immortal in 2025, and both stand in Queensland. In fact, he was the ninth most popular sire in the state for the season.

“Every VOBIS race at the moment seems to have an I Am Immortal running around in it. He had three in the VOBIS Showdown, so there was no real reason to change him.

“We've got a roster that's got a bit of everything in there, and to have him as an affordable stallion keeps the small breeders breeding because they've got an option there that's going to get them a good racehorse.”

I Am Immortal sired his second stakes winner in the spring when McGaw denied My Gladiola (I Am Invincible) and subsequent dual Group 1 winner Tentyris (Street Boss {USA}) in the G2 Danehill Stakes. He currently sits at 28 winners for the season from small numbers, although that is set to change as his largest crop are now yearlings.

Young stallions carving their own paths

Lofty Strike served his second book of mares in 2025, with 80 foals arriving in his first crop. His fee also remains the same at $22,000 (inc GST) and Heritage expects to see a lot of return customers to the son of Snitzel in 2026.

“We're thrilled with his foals,” he said. “They are everything we could have expected from Lofty Strike; they're flashy, they look just like him. He's a big, strong, good-sized Snitzel son and his foals have all been very much in that mould. We'll have quite a few of the nice ones heading to the Great Southern Sale and we look forward to showing them off.

“With what we've seen, there's no reason to change his fee. The breeders that have bred to him in the first two seasons will more than likely keep coming to him, going by the feedback we're getting on his foals.”

Across the barn, Wooded (Ire) will shuttle back down to Swettenham in 2026, for an unchanged fee of $16,500 (inc GST). His first Southern Hemisphere crop are 2-year-olds, but the Swettenham team have been patient, knowing they will reach their best next season.

“The reports are that they're going really well, but they just need the time,” said Heritage. “So I think as we get through the winter and into the spring, he will start to have a few runners and we will know where we stand with them then.

“But for now, it's just playing the waiting game as they're going to be 3-year-old prospects. We saw that in Europe with his first European crops; he had a few 2-year-old winners, but ultimately the Group 1 horses came out into their 3-year-old seasons.”

Wooded’s pinup horse Woodshauna (Fr) won a maiden late in his 2-year-old year, but he was best at three, culminating in a victory in the G1 Prix Jean Prat, beating Group 1 winner Maranoa Charlie (Fr) who now stands at Tally Ho Stud. Jawwal (Fr) just missed out on being his sire’s second Group 1 winner in October when beaten a half-length in the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp by Asfoora (Flying Artie).