It is 25 years since High Chaparral first arrived on the scene in the season which would culminate in him winning the G1 Racing Post Trophy. His subsequent exploits barely need retelling for the vintage of racing fans who can remember his brilliance first-hand but for the younger followers, it is worth a brief outline of a career which included wins in the Derby, Irish Derby, and Irish Champion Stakes, plus two third-place finishes in the Arc behind Marienbard then Dalakhani. Moreover, after each of those runs at Longchamp he went on to win back-to-back runnings of the Breeders' Cup Turf, the second of which saw him dead-heat with Johar in that memorably prolonged consultation of the photo-finish on what was to be High Chaparral's swansong. He was, simply, a wonderful racehorse. Despite the fact that he died fairly young at 15, after 11 seasons at Coolmore Stud, it remains surprising that there is relatively little trace of High Chaparral in northern hemisphere pedigrees, albeit his daughters still appear in the mix of some smart winners. Indeed, High Chaparral has featured in recent seasons as the broodmare sire of 2,000 Guineas winner Ruling Court (Justify) and Prix du Jockey Club winner Look De Vega (Lope De Vega), while Commonwealth Cup runner-up Spicy Marg (Starspangledbanner) – who is bred on the same cross as the Prix Morny winner The Wow Signal – may yet add her own Group 1 win to the list. But, bar Lucky Lion at Gestut Graditz in Germany, High Chaparral's sons have disappeared from the European stud ranks. It is, however, a much happier tale in the southern hemisphere, where High Chapparal's Group 1 winners outnumbered those in the north 14 to six, a figure which includes the British-bred Melbourne Cup winner Rekindling among the 14 recorded in Australasia. With the current sires' championship in Australia all but wrapped up, three of High Chaparral's sons are in the country's top 13 stallions. The brilliant So You Think, who won five Group 1s in each hemisphere and died last year, is in seventh; while at number 10 is the Irish-bred Toronado, and Dundeel is in the 13th spot.In Goodwood week, it is appropriate to reflect on the exploits of the 2013 Sussex Stakes winner Toronado, trained by Richard Hannon Sr and Jr during a career which included an unbeaten juvenile season culminating in the G2 Champagne Stakes, as well as victories in the G3 Craven Stakes prior to his running fourth in the 2,000 Guineas and being beaten a short-head in the St James's Palace Stakes. He then turned the tables on the winner of both of those, Dawn Approach, at Goodwood. Toronado returned to the Sussex Stakes at four after winning the G1 Queen Anne Stakes, and this time he had to settle for finishing a length second to Kingman.It was quite a coup for the National Stud when Al Shaqab Racing elected to stand Toronado in Newmarket for three seasons, and those years were followed by another five seasons at his owner's Haras de Bouquetot in Normandy. But, just like his father, Toronado has enjoyed far greater success in Australia, where he has shuttled to Adam Sangster's Swettenham Stud throughout his career and now lives permanently. Toronado at Swettenham Stud | Bronwen Healy The ever affable Sangster was at Ascot on Saturday to cheer on Minnie Hauk, bred by his brother Ben, but the onset of the southern hemisphere covering season means that he will have to forego Goodwood this week and return to Nagambie, where his team is busily booking nominations to Toronado, who has been Victoria's leading stallion both this season and last. He is also modest enough to admit that he made a mistake when turning down Coolmore's offer to stand High Chaparral when he was first joining the shuttle south. “Coolmore were brilliant about it. At the time, I went to my breeders and 85, 90 per cent of them said you couldn't stand a son of Sadler's Wells who'd won the Derby in Victoria. I took Hold That Tiger instead,” he recalls.“But the lucky thing was that Windsor Park Stud in New Zealand, a very good nursery, took him on and thank God they did as So You Think was bred there, and he was one of the greatest horses I've seen.”Sangster missed out on standing the New Zealand-bred Dundeel (who raced in Australia as It's A Dundeel) but was emboldened in his quest for a son of High Chaparral when the successful bidder on that particular stallion was John Messara of Arrowfield Stud.“Of course Mr Messara is no slouch and knows a good bloodline, and since then Dundeel's sons have done very well,” he says. Those sons include the Group 1 sires Castelvecchio and Super Seth.Toronado is now the sire of seven Group 1 winners, five of those bred in Australia, with the latest addition to the list being the juvenile Tron Bolt, who turns three later this week and won Eagle Farm's JJ Atkins for Chris Waller.“There are only five Group 1 two-year-old races, and he won one of those,” Sangster says. “He will be going into the Golden Rose and all the big races of the spring. Toronado also had a Group 2-winning two-year-old filly [Grinzinger Heart], who won the Darley Sires Produce.”The offspring of Toronado have also fared notably well in Hong Kong, where he was the only stallion to have sired two stakes winners during the most recent racing season, in which his sons Little Paradise and Stormy Grove respectively won the Classic Mile and the Classic Cup in the prestigious Four-Year-Old Classic Series.Sangster notes that Toronado has remained well patronised since his fee was boosted to A$88,000 (inc. GST) and he has 360 two-year-olds, yearlings, and weanlings coming through. The foal crop waiting in the wings will be smaller for Toronado, who was withdrawn from service for around a month last covering season when battling an infection. He bounced back to resume duties and has 62 mares in foal. “We were lucky in so much that this arose probably 10 days before the start of the season, and we looked at it for a week, and then we phoned up all the clients, and we said, 'Listen, he hopefully will come good, but at this stage, make plans elsewhere.' We were lucky enough to have Dr Angus Atkins, one of the leading veterinary surgeons, on our doorstep. He missed a month, and we were back in early October.”At 16, Toronado hopefully has a number of seasons ahead of him at a time when some of the illustrious names above him on the sires' list have either recently departed or are in their twilight years. “He's got enough troops on the ground, he's incredibly fertile, and he does throw a great-looking foal,” says Sangster. “Harry Herbert and John Warren came down with Al Shaqab and they allowed me to stand the horse. We really backed him quite strongly and bought a number of mares.”Sangster has himself bred two of Toronado's Group 1 winners – Mariamia and Victor The Winner – and notes that he has clicked well with Green Desert-line mares.He adds, “Benoit Jeffroy told me that I should be looking at the Toronado mares as well, and explained about how the strong muscle definition of Toronado fillies and mares would really suit the market. I saw Richard Hannon at Ascot and the first thing he said to me was 'How's Superman?' He always calls him that because Toronado is so strong. So I've slowly been collecting a few Toronado mares.”He may well be onto a good thing, particularly considering the proximity of another recent Al Shaqab recruit to Swettenham Stud – Wootton Bassett's son Wooded, whose has had one winner from five first-crop runners in Australia. Toronado popped up as the broodmare sire last year of Al Shaqab Racing's homebred Sahlan, another son of Wootton Bassett who won the G1 Prix du Moulin. Diego Velazquez has recently arrived in Australia | Swettenham Stud Meanwhile at Swettenham there has been an appropriate strengthening of the line of Sadler's Wells – who was bred by Sangster's late father Robert – with the arrival of Diego Velazquez, who is about to clear quarantine before embarking on his first southern-hemisphere season. There is of course another Sangster behind him – Adam's half-brother Sam – who sits on the board of the National Stud and secured the deal to stand the son of Frankel in Newmarket just before he won last year's G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois. Despite the family ties, Adam Sangster says that he wasn't a shoo-in to stand him in Australia. “He's a proper speedy son of Frankel out of an Acclamation mare and the stats for Frankel in Australia are really good,” he says. “We're very lucky to get him. Sam and his partners were brilliant. We had to really sharpen our pencil and put our best foot forward to get the stallion because there was competition on him.“We've bought a number of mares to go to him as well, just as we did with Toronado. I feel that he'll be popular, we'll select the mares, and he's being supported by his partners as well. I think people love the idea of him, they all want to see him, and once they see him, they won't be booking in two mares, they'll be booking in three mares.” The post Toronado, the Sussex Stakes Superhero Now Top of the Victorian Sire Ranks appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.