Thursday, 15th May 2025
All enquiries - Gary Knowles 0406 599 773
Swettenham Stud has revealed its stallion roster for the 2025 season, combining proven sires and exciting young prospects in a line-up tailored to suit a broad cross-section of Australasian broodmares. In a further boost for breeders, the team is also launching Swettenham Breeder Protection, an initiative that offers a free return if a foal becomes unviable within its first three months of life. It’s a progressive move designed to give breeders confidence and peace of mind in a competitive and sometimes unpredictable landscape. The standout stallion at the picturesque Nagambie property is once again Toronado, Victoria’s top active stallion, whose stocks continue to rise. Ranked among the top five sires globally by winners in 2024 – one of just two Australian stallions to do so – Toronado’s yearlings averaged more than 55% higher in 2025. That surge was highlighted by the $1 million colt out of Hardly Surprising, sold by Gilgai Farm at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale. Toronado has been able to achieve this with all racing crops being from $27,500 service fee or less, except his current season 2YOs who were conceived from a $49,500 service fee. His $88,000 conceived yearlings are just now hitting the market. That fee remains unchanged for 2025, offering a prime opportunity as his best-bred crops begin racing. Lofty Strike, a Group-winning sprinter by Snitzel out of Golden Slipper winner Overreach, returns for his second season after covering 115 quality mares in his debut year. The only stallion at stud in Australia from a Slipper-winning mare, and sired by the most prolific source of Slipper winners in the country, Lofty Strike offers precocity and elite speed. As the second most active first-season sire in Victoria last year, he represents both rare bloodlines and serious upside, standing at $22,000 incl GST. Another exciting name on the roster is Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye winner Wooded, by exceptional Australian 1st Season sire Wootton Bassett who continues to make inroads in the Southern Hemisphere. Wooded, the only son of Wootton Bassett in Australia, was the top-performing first-season sire at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in terms of fee multipliers, averaging $120,000, and his yearlings sold up to $200,000 at Karaka. With 20 winners from his first European crop, including Stakes winner Woodshauna, Wooded will shuttle for a fourth consecutive year at a reduced fee of $16,500 incl GST. Young gun I Am Immortal remains sensational value at $8,800 incl GST after a headline-grabbing season. His first crop includes $1 million VOBIS Platinum Showdown hero McGaw, unbeaten filly Saluted, VOBIS Gold Ignot winner I Am Velvet and Group 3-winning gelding Athanatos, who has missed the placings just once in 14 starts. Rounding out the line-up is Puissance de Lune, who maintains 100% winners-to-runners in Hong Kong and stays eligible for the lucrative VOBIS scheme. His fee remains available on application.
