TORNADO TWIST

10th July 2019

Price Bloodstock graduate Tornado Twist wound up a very impressive first campaign with a spectacular Class 2 victory at Happy Valley midweek that sets him up for an exciting four-year-old season after the summer break.

The John Size-trained gelding earned a big pay day for his owners in the season’s last contest at the Valley, with an $850,000 High Achievement Bonus from the Jockey Club on top of the $1.11 million first prize, after surging home from the rear to land the win in the final strides.

Tornado Twist has won 4 of 9 starts as a three-year-old with his trademark big finish and might have gone even further but for a scarcity of targets once he hit Class 2 and Size has raced him sparingly since March. His win on Wednesday came at his first start since May.

“We struggled to find suitable races for him actually,” the trainer said. “The horse was in good shape all of the time but there wasn’t a race that I could get him into in the last couple of months, so he has had a couple of trials to keep him ticking over and his form has been maintained through that period. It was nice to find this race on the program for him – although he had not won at Happy Valley before, he has raced well here so we waited for this race. Joao gave him a great ride and we got the right result.”

Size has been successful for Price Bloodstock with another son of Australian stallion Denman, Hot King Prawn, and thinks there is more to come for Tornado Twist.

“He has had a great season with four wins and will go into the 90-ratings after this I suppose but should be a stronger horse next season at four and he has a very good attitude, so I’m hopeful that there is still some upside to him as a more mature horse,” Size said.

Tornado Twist was Price Bloodstock’s 56th winner for the 2018-19 Hong Kong season.