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Another Hore-Lacy Toff retires
Rick Hore-Lacy promotes himself as the “stallion maker” on his website. He has good reason to be proud of the high-class colts he has trained who have gone on to outstanding careers at stud.
The list includes Australia’s super stud Redoute’s Choice (standing at Arrowfield), the evergreen Canny Lad (Darley), Victoria’s handy Dash For Cash (Swettenham) as well as Kenny’s Best Pal, Spartacus and Clay Hero.
Hore-Lacy today took the saddle off another quality colt destined for a stud career. Toorak Toff (pictured) was retired after showing the effects of a wind problem when finishing a first-up fifth behind Éclair Mystic in Saturday’s Red Tempo Stakes (1000m) at Flemington. The veterinary report revealed the colt had a slower than normal heart rate, an issue that manifested itself on further investigation.
The race was to be Toorak Toff’s lead-up to next month’s Magic Million 3YO Guineas (1400m) at the Gold Coast, for which he was nominal favourite.
Hore-Lacy said he would rather retire Toorak Toff than try for a throat operation that might correct the chestnut’s wind issues. The son of Show A Heart will be offered for purchase to some of Australia’s leading studs. Hore-Lacy believes they will line up with their cheque books.
The trainer has declared the colt the best-looking horse he has trained. “If he was blonde and had two legs, he’d be a 10 out of 10.”
Toorak Toff was a tough and courageous juvenile who emerged as an early spring star at three, winning the Listed Vain Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield before going to Sydney to win the Group 1 Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill.
As good as Toorak Toff looks, and as quick and tough as he was as a racehorse, he offers breeders something more – an important link to the past: the great, and diminished, Star Kingdom sire line.
And if he can be successful at stud, and I see no reason why he won’t be, then he will enhance his sire Show A Heart as a producer of stallions, which may ensure the continuance of the once dominant sire line that is unique to this part of the world.
Unfortunately, the Star Kingdom line faltered in the wake of a Northern Dancer/Danzig onslaught, but that’s not the only reason – it was already fading in the early 1990s when Danzig’s brilliant son Danehill changed the nature of the breed, first in Australia and then in Europe.
Star Kingdom’s line was strongest through his exceptionally fast son Biscay, who proved a wonderful sire of sires, but unfortunately, Biscay’s best son Bletchingly (br h 1970, ex-Coogee (GB), by Relic (USA)), who at one time had a couple of football teams of sons at stud in Australia, proved to be a disappointment in advancing the Star Kingdom line en-masse. The Bletchingly name hasn’t carried on through his best sire-son Canny Lad, who is more a sire of fillies that stud-prospect colts; and his other top son, Star Watch, died after only a few crops.
But it is through the unlikely genes of Cossack Warrior (br h 1983, Bletchingly-Mary (NZ), by Hermes (GB)) that this famous bloodline has held its place. Cossack Warrior (only five Stakes winners) was a handy sire of little influence other than through his brilliant son Brave Warrior (ch h 1991, ex-Nothing To Do (USA), by Nijinsky II (CAN)), who was proving something of a sire sensation when he died at the age of only six.
From Brave Warrior’s two crops of only 117 foals came an impressive seven Stakes winners, headed by the four-time Group 1 winner Show A Heart (ch h 1997, ex-Miss Sandman, by Regal Advice (NZ)), who like his son is a flashy chestnut and cracking good sort. Show A Heart has just finished covering his ninth book of mares at Glenlogan Park Stud, Queensland, at a fee of $30,250 (inc. GST). His first book of 124 mares in 2002 was at fee of $13,750.
Apart from Toorak Toff he also is the sire of the 2009 Group 1 Australian Guineas winner Heart Of Dreams and 10 other Stakes winners, including the outstanding filly Mimi Lebrock.
Of course, the Star Kingdom influence is still immense on the female side of Australian pedigrees. Mares with his blood have matched perfectly with Danzig and Danehill. It’s not uncommon to see a double or triple cross of Star Kingdom in the female side of a good racehorse’s pedigree. Toorak Toff has a double cross of Star Kingdom through his granddam, Blixen, who by Mighty Avalanche, a son of Kaoru Star.
But keeping the sire line alive seems to rest on the broad shoulders and handsome heads of Show A Heart and Toorak Toff, and any Group 1 quality colts they can produce in the next 15-20 years.
Pedigree: Toorak Toff (ch c 3, Show A Heart-Orong, by Grand Lodge (USA))
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