Quality Toronado daughter Toropa upset her more fancied rivals and showed a blistering turn of foot to take the Listed Jungle Dawn Classic over 1400m, the second leg of The Pinnacles Mares Series at the Ascot carnival.
The Stephen Miller trained five year old recorded a well deserved first stakes victory following her close second in the Listed Beaufine Stakes in July.
It was the seventh win from just 16 starts for the lightly raced Toropa, who has also recorded 4 second placings and now has prize money earnings of $354,650 to her name.
Toropa becomes the 29th stakes winner for Swettenham Stud's dual G1 winner and G1 sire Toronado, and the handsome son of High Chaparral has made quite a name for himself as a sire of exceptionally fast females!
Punters had settled on Yorga Pride (Pride Of Dubai) for team Williams / Pike as their favourite following her last start third in the Jungle Mist Classic, in which Toropa had run fifth.
Equal second favourites were the talented Bonjoy (Maschino) and Luvnwar (War Decree), both mares dropping in grade and back against their own sex.
Toropa was given some chance as a 16/1 shot, as was the Calyx mare Earthstorm at the same price, while Objectify (No Nay Never) and Secret Attraction (Savabeel) were speckled at slightly longer odds.
It was a case of “write your own ticket” for the remainder of the big sixteen horse field!
Toropa began brilliantly for Brad Parnham from her wide barrier and crossed the field easily to the rail.
Luvnwar and Clint Johnston-Porter also powered up there with Secret Attraction (Lucy Fiore) in the firing line, Yorga Pride and Pike settling behind them and Bonjoy (Chris Parnham) unable to match the early speed and going back beyond midfield.
At the 700 Toropa skipped along with ears pricked, three quarters to Luvnwar with roughie Chino La Diva (Maschino) in third.
Secret Attraction on her outside now made a move three wide as they approached the turn. Yorga Pride was in traffic looking for a run!
Into the straight withToropa going full bore and she had no intention of stopping! The mare shot away by three lengths. Luvnwar tried to rally but she had no answer to the winners acceleration, eventually relegated to third place by 150/1 bolter Amjaad (Flying Artie) who emerged from nowhere to run second!
Toropa in the famous Amelia Park silks simply ran them off their legs, and relishing the step up to 1400m she powered through the line to hold them by two lengths.
Bonjoy got going when it was all over and zoomed home for fourth a nose ahead of Earthstorm and Yorga Pride.
Trainer Stephen “SJ” Miller felt the mare was overdue for her first stakes win.
“ All of her runs have been credible without having much luck at all” said the proud trainer.
“She drew a bad barrier again, and I said to Brad just give her a dig out and see if you can be in the first six or something. .. but she sprang the lids and got across easily.
She had a pretty good run and she's got an electrifying kick to her. I wouldn't even go there (to the 1600m Starstruck Classic in 2 weeks time) …..we can take the win today and probably drop her back to the 1000m race on Perth Cup day.”
“We got a little bit too far out of our ground last start in the Jungle Mist” said Brad Parnham.
“ She drew a terrible barrier again but SJ said look, if she happens to fly the lids just go with her, and she did so I made up my mind on the spot to take her to the front.
She always travelled like the winner.”
The well related Toropa was purchased for $230,000 by her original trainer Vern Brockman at the 2022 Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale from the Amelia Park draft and he retains a share in her big ownership group headed by P Walsh, Yarradale Stud, Bradley Thoroughbreds and Jondiaka syndicates.
Toropa is one of seven named foals and the first stakes winner for the talented Rock Of Gibraltar mare Europa Point, who recorded three stakes placings in the eastern states.
Toropa is a three quarter sister to the good race mare Reveille (High Chaparral) the dam of dual Listed winning gelding Buckets Ridge who placed in the AJ Scahill Stakes at Ascot a week ago, and a second daughter of the great “High Chap” Apache Point, dam of stakes placed gelding Apache Pass (by War Chant exp HK).
Toropa is also a half sister to stakes placed La Farola (Deep Field) who earned upwards of $400,000 on the track. La Farola is also owned by Bradley Thoroughbreds (As is Europa Point) and she produced her first foal - a colt by I Am Invincible - this spring.
Europa Point's Awesome Rock three year old Point Gibraltar is unraced as yet and was a $65,000 buy for Gangemi Racing at the 2024 Magic Millions Perth from the Amelia Park draft.
The mare had a year off breeding in 2023 before producing a filly to the French G2 winning and Australian stakes placed stallion Spiritjim (Galileo) in 2024.
Toropa's speedy second dam Gambei was by noted broodmare sire Dehere, and to the cover of Galileo she produced the Listed Hobart Guineas winner Reprisal among her five winners, with another stakes placed daughter Pickin’ Time (Fastnet Rock) also a producer.
Toropa's third dam Marooned Lady by the great Mill Reef son Marooned won the G3 WATC Sires Produce Stakes and produced ten winners, three memorable stakes winners.
Her sons the full brothers King Canute and Redwoldt won at opposite ends of the distance spectrum, the former a G2 Perth Cup hero and the latter a G2 Karrakatta Plate winner who went on to finish second in a G1 Winterbottom Stakes!
But it was her daughter who was the best of them all, that being champion and 3 x G1 winner Special Harmony by the Nureyev stallion Spinning World.
Special Harmony's stakes winning daughter Little Surfer Girl (Encosta De Lago) is dam of supermare and crowd favourite Fangirl by Sebring - with 4 G1 wins and more than $10.5 million in prizemoney this wonderful mare is still racing at the highest level.
This fantastic female line goes back to Picatina (GB) by Welsh Pageant, imported into Australia in 1972.
Her ancestress was Zanzara, this line a branch of family 6b. Through her great son Showdown, Zanzara played her role in the development of the Australasian thoroughbred, and that stallion bequeathed to us the magnificent racehorse, sire and broodmare sire Zeditave.
Toropa is bred
Northern Dancer 4m x 5m,5m
Danzig 5m x 4m
Her pedigree duplicates Danzig's relative and key nick Rockefella and she is linebred to (among others) - Mill Reef, Secretariat, Round Table, and to Blue Hen Lalun ( through Never Bend, Bold Reason plus her wider family 19-b through Always Fair carried by Toronado)
Toropa is one of two new stakes winners for Toronado this season, the other being his promising Moonee Valley G3 winning filly Snow Mercy.
The son of High Chaparral is one of the most consistent and versatile sires available to breeders, producing quality performers from a wide variety of bloodlines.
His daughters and grand daughters will be sought after broodmares in years to come.
Toronado stands at Swettenham Stud in Victoria on a fee of $88,000.
