Matings Mix: Where are the Torryburn mares going this season?

Cover image courtesy of Torryburn Stud

For Torryburn Stud’s Brett Cornish and Melissa Copelin it is not a matter of getting to the spring and making quick decisions about where their mares are headed, rather it is a year long process of observation and research.

“A lot of credit to Brett,” Melissa said, “he puts a lot of time into it. He watches the races every Saturday all throughout the year and takes note of who is winning and what is working.”

“We keep screenshots of things we think we might like to try and when we get to this time of year we sit down and divide our mares into groups - A, our top tier mares, B our second tier and C the others; mares who might not be really commercial but who are doing a good job getting winners.”

“We then work out a budget and where the mares fit in regarding their age. We like to set up our young mares in their first four years by mating them purely and simply for racetrack success.”

Breeding for racetrack success

“In that time we don’t think about the sales ring at all,” she said, working on the theory that once mares get nice winners, success at the sales follows.

“It doesn’t always work out,” she said, but it is a formula that on the whole has served Torryburn exceptionally well.

“We want to give our young mares the best chance of getting winners and mate them how we want, which is not always how the market would say is the best way to mate them.”

Once the winners flow for a mare, a bigger risk may be taken - “she can then go to a sexy first season stallion and hopefully we get a horse who brings in the dollars. Though we still have in mind that we are breeding racehorses, not just sales horses.”

The “sexy” first season boys Torryburn have mares booked to this year are Shinzo, Ozzmosis and King’s Gambit whilst “the up-and-comers” Stay Inside and Home Affairs (bred by Torryburn) will also be supported as will the likes of Zousain, Tassort, Harry Angel (Ire) and Hellbent.

“They are all going really well,” Copelin said.

Lots of research

The time leading up to the breeding season is a busy one at Torryburn with many a pedigree printed out and studied.

“We go over the matings and again; we want to be happy with the crosses and of course the match on type.”

Torryburn’s prized matriarch Miss Interiors (Flying Spur), the three-time winning dam of the dual Group 1 winner Home Affairs and the Group 1-placed, Listed winner Aysar (who both stand at stud; Coolmore and Geisel Park Stud respectively) is currently back in foal to Home Affairs’ sire I Am Invincible and is booked in for a date with Zoustar.

This is a match that Copelin and Cornish have been keen on for some time; Miss Interiors missing to Zoustar two seasons back with another crack always on the cards.

“He is a great match for her and she shows such beautiful foals that she deserves to go to the best.”

Eighteen of Zoustar’s 24 runners out of Flying Spur mares are winners including the stakes winners Sun City, The Astrologist and Master Hunter and it is a cross that provides for the duplication of the terrific mare Rolls (USA) (Mr Prospector {USA}), dam of Flying Spur and grandam of Zoustar’s grandsire Encosta De Lago.

And there is a real bonus at work with Miss Interior whose influential fourth dam Fanfreluche (Can) (Northern Dancer {Can}) being the grandam of Rolls.

Miss Interiors has not had the best of luck in recent years but Torryburn have her 2-year-old daughter Domain (Dundeel {NZ}) in the John O’Shea and Tom Charlton stable.

That filly is an example of some of the horses Torryburn like to hold on to, keen to keep the good families going whilst noting that such families can be pretty hard to buy into.

Espiona - theory breaker!

“We can’t really afford to buy horses like that,” Copelin said, whilst remaining committed to also selling a number of nice fillies.

“There was a stigma attached to the Torryburn name a few years ago, that we kept our best fillies. So we have had years where we have sold them all and I think that Espiona (Extreme Choice) broke that theory for us!”

Taken to the 2020 Magic Millions at the Gold Coast, Espiona caught the eye of Star Thoroughbreds and the Randwick Bloodstock Agency where she was secured for $190,000.

The winner of last year’s G1 Coolmore Classic and four other stakes races amongst her seven wins from 24 starts, she was recently retired; due to be sold via a stand-alone online Magic Millions virtual auction in a couple of weeks.

The G1 Queensland Oaks-placed Moonee Valley winner Imperial Lass (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}), dam of the Torryburn bred Hong Kong-based two-time Group winner Straight Arron (Fastnet Rock) is another prized member of the stud’s broodmare band though being due late, she will have this spring off.

Served in mid-December by Pierro, she epitomises what Torryburn try to do; breed horses who fare well in the sales ring and on the track. In that regard she has proven to be a terrific mare, producing a high-class performer with all her foals selling exceptionally well. Including her latest yearling, a Wootton Bassett (GB) filly who sold to Glentree Thoroughbreds and Badgers Bloodstock for $500,000 at Inglis Easter.

And one of her daughters is another Torryburn have chosen to keep, her 2-year-old Pilasso (Pierro) a member of the Chris Waller stable.

The city-placed three-time winner The Soloist (Smart Missile), a Torryburn homebred, is another much loved resident with her late dam De Chorus (Unbridled’s Song {USA}) doing such a great job with her seven winners including the Hong Kong Group 1 winner Hot King Prawn (Denman) and the dual Group 3 winner Siren’s Fury (Myboycharlie {Ire}) as well as the dam of the Listed Anniversary S. winner First Immortal (Churchill {Ire}).

Torryburn - Toronado fans

Not currently in foal, The Soloist heads south to Toronado (Ire) this spring with Copelin noting that “we don’t typically send mares to Victoria but when we have done so it has paid off really well.”

Especially with Toronado; “he has been really good to us,” Copelin said.

Torryburn sold a Toronado filly out of The Soloist’s half-sister De Chorus Line (The Factor {USA}) at the Magic Millions Gold Coast for $300,000 in January whilst a filly (now named Oakfield Jupiter with Damien Lane at Wyong) out of Isle Of Capri (Street Cry {Ire}) fetched $320,000 at last year’s Inglis Classic.

The Soloist is doing a good job for her owners, her first colt by Deep Field selling for $750,000 at Inglis Easter, her second by that same stallion for $650,000; both purchased by the Hong Kong Jockey Club. And also Hong Kong-bound is her third foal, a Capitalist colt who sold at this year’s Inglis Classic for $180,000.

De Chorus Line is in foal to Maurice (Jpn), visiting Stay Inside this year.

Meanwhile there is a Toronado filly racing in the Torryburn colours, the Michael Freedman-trained Every Heart finishing on the heels of the placegetters after being awkwardly out of the gates at her Newcastle debut in April.

Her dam La Pomme De Pin (I Am Invincible), winner of the Magic Millions Ballarat Clockwise Classic, is in foal to Justify (USA), due to visit Shinzo this year. Her first foal Californian (Justify) sold for $125,000 at Magic Millions and is a lightly raced Hawkesbury maiden winner who has been competitive in stakes company.

Night raid to Snitzel

The dual Listed winner Night Raid (Vancouver) foaled a colt by Zoustar last year, subsequently missing to Extreme Choice and now ready for her date with the Champion Sire Snitzel.

“He is an amazing stallion,” Copelin enthused, “and physically Night Raid is perfect for him.”

“She hails from a lovely family,” Copelin added, Night Raid being a daughter of the Listed winner Raid (NZ) (Pins) with her relations including the dual Group 1 winner Stratum Star and the two time Group 3 winner Prague.

As fans of Tavistock (NZ) mares, Torryburn were delighted to pick up the well-related Countess Jenni (NZ) for a nice price off the track just recently. She will visit Home Affairs with Copelin noting that “putting those stout types into speed has worked well over and over for us.”

“She is a lovely mare,” she said of the half-sister to the Group 1-placed Capital Diamond (NZ) (Lucky Unicorn) whose daughter Gift Of Power (NZ) (Power {GB}) is a Group 2 and dual Listed winner.

She is a granddaughter of Diamond Lover (Sticks And Stones), the Group 1 daughter of the mighty Eight Carat (GB) (Pieces Of Eight {Ire}).

A Group 3 winning half-sister to the Torryburn-bred Hong Kong Group 1 winner Voyage Bubble (Deep Field), Diddums (Snitzel) is in foal to Toronado, heading to Zoustar. She has been good for the stud, her first three foals selling for between $200,000 and $350,000.

Torryburn remained in her Written Tycoon 2-year-old called Rich Tears with Annabel Neasham and have retained her Zoustar yearling filly who has spent some time with Waterhouse and Bott… “they really like her.”

Also going to Zoustar, and currently in foal to him, is the Group 3 placed Flemington winner Jedastar (I Am Invincible). Her first foal The Stars (Zoustar) is with Chris Waller whilst her second, a filly by Exceed And Excel will be raced by Torryburn having been passed in at the Magic Millions.

Torryburn will be breeding with around 30 of their own mares this year, the stud also home to another 50 or so belonging to clients. Some of them are breed to race owners always on the lookout for the best big thing.

“It is getting harder for breeders in the $10,000 - $20,000 range,” Copelin said, “but a horse like Tassort comes along and you realise there is still value out there, you just have to find those horses!”

Copelin values Torryburn’s relationships with the major studs, always happy to listen to the opinions of people who see the stallions and their progeny on a day to day basis.

She attributes Torryburn’s newly established spelling division as a bonus in regards to breeding… “I get to see the young horses as they come from the sales or off the track which enables us to see what sort the stallions are getting which really helps with our decision making.”

Table: Mating schedule for the high-profile Torryburn Stud mares