Toronado steady, Diego Velazquez new as Swettenham sets 2026 fees
Swettenham will inject prized Frankel blood into Australia with Group 1 winner Diego Velazquez to stand at $27,500, headlining a roster anchored by the ever-reliable Toronado at an unchanged $88,000.
Frankel’s Group 1-winning son Diego Velazquez will stand for an introductory fee of $27,500 (all fees inc GST) in his maiden southern hemisphere season when he shuttles to Swettenham Stud last this year.
In rolling out its five-strong 2026 stallion roster, the Nagambie-based Swettenham Stud also confirmed that its banner horse Toronado, the sire of six stakes winners this season, will remain at an unchanged fee of $88,000, his fifth year in succession at that figure.
Toronado, whose time in the breeding shed was halted early in September due to injury, covered 84 mares in 2025 after recovering from the setback.
Swettenham Stud principal Adam Sangster was delighted to have Diego Velazquez on his stallion roster.
“Frankel boasts an impressive 18 per cent stakes winners to runners record in Australia, so it’s a great privilege to provide the Australian industry with the most significant injection of Frankel blood to date,” Sangster said.
“To get a gauge of how nice of a horse Diego is, he was one of the most expensive Frankel yearlings ever sold, selling for the equivalent of $5,000,000 as a yearling – only the Winx filly has sold for more than that in Australia this decade.”
Among Frankel’s 36 Australian stakes winners are Sir Delius, who won the Turnbull and Underwood Stakes in Melbourne last spring, elite Australian Oaks-winning three-year-old Hungry Heart, Converge and Mirage Dancer.
Diego Velazquez was a winner from 1400 metres to 1800 metres and he proved superior at a mile in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois, a momentous result for Sangster’s brother Sam who negotiated to buy the horse from Coolmore prior to his top-level win in France last August.
A winner of Group races at two, three and four, Diego Velazquez raced just once more, finishing fifth in the Grade 1 Turf Mile at Keeneland last October, before retiring to the UK’s National Stud.
Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Diego Velazquez burst onto the scene with a dominant debut win as a two-year-old before claiming the Group 2 Juvenile Stakes at Leopardstown. He went on to win the Group 3 Meld Stakes by seven lengths and the Group 2 Solonaway Stakes, earning high praise from O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore.
A 2.4 million guineas yearling purchase, Diego Velazquez is out of the stakes-winning two-year-old Sweepstake and is a three-quarter brother to Group 1 winner Broome and Group 2 winner Point Lonsdale.
Meanwhile, Group 2-winning sprinter Lofty Strike, a son of the late champion sire Snitzel, will enter his third season on the Swettenham roster at an unchanged $22,000.
Shuttler Wooded, a son of Wootton Bassett whose eldest southern hemisphere-bred crop are two-year-olds, will also remain at a fee of $16,500.
Wooded’s first northern hemisphere crop has already produced two Group 1 performers, including the Prix Jean Prat winner Woodshauna.
I Am Immortal, the sire of McGaw, Athanatos and Immortal Star, will stand at $8,800, the same fee as 2025.
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