07/07/15
One has to have a special admiration for horses that hold track records for long periods of time – in some cases decades.
Not many horses hold two metropolitan track records; in fact the only horse that currently holds two metropolitan track records along the eastern seaboard to my knowledge is the former Deagon trained classy sprinter Star of Florida. The ex-Pat Duff trained gelding to this day holds the Doomben 1010-metre track record at 56.63 (set 23/10/04 carrying 61kgs after a three-kilo claim for apprentice Bryce Dieckmann) and the Doomben 1110-metre track record at 1.02.95 (set 20/7/02 with 54.5kgs).
Century Kid holds the Eagle Farm 1200-metre track record at 1.08.10. He’s owned that track record since he won the QTC Cup over 14 years ago – on 2/6/01.
Similarly Toledo broke the existing Eagle Farm 1400-metre track record when he stopped the clock at 1.20.20 on an obvious fast track when he won the Stradbroke Handicap way back in 1998 – 17 years ago.
Just A Printer holds the Eagle Farm track record for 1600 metres at a blistering 1.33.00. He set that track record when he won the 1994 Castlemaine Stakes (now the J.J. Atkins Classic) as a 2YO.
Down in Sydney, Ike’s Dream has held the 1600-metre track record at Randwick at 1.33.13 since he won the Villiers over a decade ago – in 2004 to be exact.
Further south in Melbourne, that grand mare aptly named Special held the Flemington 1000-metre for decades at 55.50 before an even grander mare named Black Caviar broke Special’s record on 16/2/13 by stopping the clock at 55.42. Rest assured Black Caviar will still hold that track record when most of us are planted.
And so on and so forth.
One record that’s always interested me is the Ipswich Turf Club 1100-metre track. Todonic held that track record from 21/4/1982 to 27/5/15 – that’s amazingly over 33 years. His figure was lowered on 27/5/15 by Lesley’s Choice (1.02.82), then Rock Royalty lowered the Lesleys Choice time standard on Ipswich Cup day (13/6/15) when clocking 1.02.49.
So let me share the Todonic story with you.
Todonic entered the world on 1 December 1978 as the grandson of the inaugural 1957 Golden Slipper winner Todman, via his son Todwana – and the Ovaltine mare Imatonic.
Interestingly Todonic’s mother Imatonic couldn’t win a race, albeit she was placed. And the next four dams in Todonic’s female line – in order – Carewell, Lady Welcome, Itemise and Item’s Pride didn’t win a race either. One has to go back to Todonic’s sixth dam, a mare called Bel Item, to find a winner.
Todonic’s sire Todwana however was a classy Brisbane performer. Trained at different stages of his career across two top stables of the time – Jim Griffiths and George Benn – Todwana won eight races in his career from 5 furlongs (1000m) to 1 mile (1600m). He won three races at 2YO and included in those three wins were the Hopeful Stakes and the Sires’ Produce Stakes. His five wins as an older horse included the Delaney Quality, Doomben Stakes and the D.J. O’Mara Stakes. Some of Todwana’s best efforts were defeats, most notably when he dead-heated for second in the 1965 Doomben Ten Thousand with Arcadus behind the Victorian visitor and Carnival find of that year – Winfreux.
After he was retired to stud in 1966, Todwana sired some handy gallopers, the best one being 1976 Doomben Ten Thousand winner Burwana. He also won the Liverpool City Cup at Warwick Farm the following year, as two of his nine career wins.
Todonic was bred at Dalby by Dr Ian Keys and his wife and in his career Todonic started 29 times for 12 wins, six seconds and two thirds for the local Dalby based trainer Des Burns.
Todonic was a flying machine that won from 800 metres to 1354 metres and his 12 wins came at seven different tracks – Eagle Farm, Doomben, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Dalby, Gatton and Chinchilla.
Some of his country efforts were simply breathtaking. He won a Dalby Purse over 1000 metres by 17 lengths and stopped the clock at 58.2 seconds. He won a Chinchilla 9th Division over 1200 metres by 6.5 lengths. His two easy Clifford Park wins in Toowoomba resulted in winning margins of 3 lengths and 3.5 lengths.
He officially ran a class record winning a Graduation Stakes over 1200 metres at Doomben by 2.75 lengths, then he broke the Ipswich 1100-metre track record, his record that still stands to this day, when he won a Graduation Stakes there by four lengths.
In fact in an extraordinary effort, there was a time when Todonic also held the Ipswich 1000-metre track record at the same time that he held the 1100-metre track record. He held the Ipswich 1000-metre track record at 57.30 seconds and he held the two track records at Ipswich until Lynn’s Love broke his 1000-metre track record on 9/9/87 when she ran a blistering 56.70. And Lynn’s Love’s track record still stands to this day – over 27 years later.
Some of Todonic’s beaten efforts in black type races included a second in the Toowoomba Weetwood, and fourths in each of the Lightning Handicap and XXXX Stakes at Eagle Farm and the Eye Liner Stakes at Ipswich.
Upon his retirement, Todonic went off to stud to Colkerri Stud, Bell Street, Dalby in 1983 at a stud fee of “$1,000 payable on a 45-day positive pregnancy test”.
Official Stud Book records show that Todonic stood for 15 consecutive years at stud from 1984 to 1998 inclusive. The biggest book of mares he served was 32 in 1985, whilst the lowest number he served was just 3 in 1992. He had 94 live foals represent him but naturally only a percentage of those 94 raced.
As a commercial stallion, Todonic only threw one black type performer – Ambahar – and she won the 1996 Listed Sir Douglas Wadley Handicap at Eagle Farm. In a cruel twist, Ambahar, which had won seven races in her career and $124,520 in prizemoney, didn’t get the opportunity to see if she’d be capable of making a name for her father Todonic, as a broodmare sire, as she died when only 6YO before she’d even been mated.
Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there’s a montage of photos from the Bluff/Blackwater racetrack in Central Queensland. On www.sydneyracing.com.au David Clarkson looks at Ladbrokes being in merger talks in an effort to cut costs, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au there’s a story on the announcement that Breeders’ Cup winner London Bridge is going to stand in Victoria in the fast approaching breeding season.