A Toronado turnaround: Swettenham star makes stunning recovery to return to breeding barn

Top Victorian stallion Toronado has made a remarkable recovery from injury, allying initial fears that the Swettenham Stud-based sire’s life could have been in danger.

Such was Toronado’s rapid recovery from a hock injury and subsequent severe infection, which saw him removed from stud duties on the eve of the breeding season, the son of High Chaparral returned to the serving barn in October.

Toronado covered one mare a day during that month before his workload was doubled in November, with the 16-year-old serving about 70 mares in total this year at an advertised service fee of $88,000 (inc GST), his 11th season at Swettenham.

Reflecting on the injury that saw Toronado rushed into veterinary care in late August, Swettenham studmaster Adam Sangster revealed extreme caution was taken with the stallion when the infection set in.

“It was just unfortunate timing, really. It was the weekend before September 1st when they were to start covering when his hock blew up on us and obviously we had a lot of mares coming down from the Hunter and all over Victoria for him,” Sangster told The Straight. 

“So we had to act on it fast and make calls on Father’s Day after the first couple of weeks off, before the veterinarian teams were able to fully identify the issue to allow everyone the time to change their plans to get their seasons underway.

“It was a crazy time, but it was pretty stressful, too, with just so many unknowns around what the injury was and when he was going to be back because it wasn’t looking like it wasn’t going to be this season at all at that stage.”

Toronado has been a revelation since joining Swettenham’s stallion roster in 2015 as a shuttler in a deal with Al Shaqab Racing.

Twenty-eight of his 46 stakes winners have been in the southern hemisphere and five of his Group 1 winners have been in Australia and Hong Kong, with Toronado’s success leading him to calling Swettenham home on a permanent basis since 2022. 

As his stocks soared, his service fee reflected his increased popularity, with it rising four-fold since his introductory $22,000 (inc GST) when shuttling to Swettenham for the first time a decade ago.

It’s been a tough season for Australian stud farms with Arrowfield losing champion sire Snitzel and Coolmore was dealt a severe blow with the premature deaths of Wootton Bassett and So You Think.

St Jean, the sire of this year’s Caulfield and Melbourne Cup winner Half Yours, also died suddenly last month and Sangster is thankful Toronado has made a full recovery in a quick period of time.

“That certainly gave us plenty of perspective with what so many of the other farms were dealing with this year,” Sangster said.

“Having livestock, there’s going to be issues that you face and you never want it to be a superstar stallion, but those things happen and first and foremost you’ve got to do the right thing by the horse.

“He’s been so good to us, even for the longevity of him as well, so we wanted to take a cautious approach.”

While Toronado was nursed back to perfect health, Swettenham chose to effectively keep his book closed to a select group of breeders.

“He’s always covered good sized books because he’s got plenty of libido and exceptional fertility, so even if he did miss the year it was never going to be a concern because there are plenty of them out there,” the studmaster said. 

“But it does keep him ticking along. We didn’t publicise that we’re covering with him because we didn’t want everyone calling about him.

“We just wanted to really keep him for the on-farm clients that have supported him along the way and then they can have one foal in a small select book that holds him in good stead for the sales.”

Toronado has set a career-best pace for number of winners this season, siring 84 Australian winners so far in 2025/26, equal second with Capitalist and only three winners behind last season’s champion sire Zoustar.

“I know you (The Straight) put out the article saying that he was top-five sire in the world for winners, but this year I could only find Zoustar who has had more than him so far,” he said.

“He’s already well past the amount of winners he had last year, which was a record year, and he’s improving on that as these better crops come through. 

“Obviously, he had his best sales results this year with the first million dollar yearling, so it’s pretty exciting.”