Rising star Toorak Toff maintained his winning run this season with a brilliant victory in the G1 Golden Rose at Rosehill on Saturday. The Rick Hore-Lacy trained colt nailed long-time leader Squamosa in the shadows of the post to score by a half neck.
Toorak Toff (3c Show a Heart – Orong by Grand Lodge) was a $135,000 purchase by part owner Bill Van Rooy at the 2009 Gold Coast Magic Millions yearling sale and is now within $25,000 of becoming a millionaire.
He won the G3 The Jansz and Adelaide Magic Millions 2YO Classic at Morphettville last season and returned to action with a brilliant first-up victory in the Listed MRC Vain Stakes at Caulfield earlier this month.
Toorak Toff will return to Melbourne and run in the G3 Guineas Prelude leading up to the G1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) in October.
Hore-Lacy has declared Toorak Toff as potentially the equal of Redoute’s Choice who he trained to win a Blue Diamond and a Caulfield Guineas. “But I’m not getting carried away just yet,” the colourful Caulfield conditioner said. “It‘s still a bit early to compare them but if Toorak Toff hadn’t been shin-sore he could easily have won the Blue Diamond.”
His sire Show A Heart won the 2000 Caulfield Guineas, albeit in the stewards’ room, a year after Redoute’s Choice defied Testa Rossa in a vintage edition of the classic.
The Golden Rose winner is the first foal for unraced mare Orong who is a daughter of G2 Sandown Guineas winner Blixen. Glenlogan Park sold her Bradbury’s Luck colt for to Graeme Rogerson for $100,000 at the 2009 Magic Millions 2YO HIT Sale. He has been registered as Economic.
Glenlogan Park also has a sister to Toorak Toff catalogued for the 2011 Gold Coast Magic Millions.