As the European Flat season gathers momentum, it is well worth reflecting on the soaring reputation of Too Darn Hot in the southern hemisphere ahead of his own keenly anticipated third year with runners in Europe this season.
Just a few week ago, Too Darn Hot sired yet another high-class runner in Australia, the first from his second crop of two-year-olds there.
When his son Rivellino landed the Group 2 Skyline Stakes over 1,200 metres at Randwick – one of the top feeder races for the Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes – he became the seventh Group winner in his sire’s first two seasons with runners there. Now seven Group winners is a notable achievement in any jurisdiction, but even more so in Australia as two-year-old Group- and Listed-winning opportunities are not as commonplace as they are in Europe.
On more than one occasion, Australian racing and breeding has been denied direct access to a stallion travelling down from the north right after proving to be a huge successes in his early years in Australia. The modern-day example is Too Darn Hot who shuttled for four consecutive seasons from 2020 to 2023 and was slated to stand his fifth season at a fee of A$110,000 (£55,000), only to become a very late withdrawal. It is not the first time this has happened to stallions from this sire line. Too Darn Hot’s sire Dubawi spent three seasons in the Hunter Valley, from where he delivered 22 stakes winners at an excellent rate of 11.6 per cent. But such was his success in Europe that he was deemed too valuable to shuttle thereafter.
Meanwhile, Dubawi’s current most expensive stallion son at stud in the northern hemisphere, Night Of Thunder, spent a single season in Australia, producing seven stakes winners (13.5 per cent) from only 52 runners, again an excellent return.
Too Darn Hot’s early Australian success is on a different scale though to that of Dubawi and Night Of Thunder, as excellent as their contributions were. To put it in context, Too Darn Hot’s ten stakes winners so far have come along at a top-class rate of 11.8 per cent from runners.
Even more impressive is his tally of Group winners. It is nothing short of outstanding to have seven Group winners on the board at this early stage in his career as it hasn’t happened with any other Australian or New Zealand-based sire this century. That’s how good it is. The great Redoute’s Choice had six at the same point, as did Stravinsky, while Exceed And Excel, Rock Of Gibraltar, Zoustar and Zoustar’s sire Northern Meteor had five apiece. And while it might be true in a general sense that modern-day sires tend to have more runners and hence more opportunity to lead such rankings, this is not the case with Too Darn Hot, as he also boasts one of the highest strike-rates of any sire this century with a score of 8.2 per cent Group winners to runners, second only to Extreme Choice’s 12.1 per cent (whose poor fertility delivers small select crops).
Leaving the metrics aside, Too Darn Hot’s list of top horses is also an impressive read. Topped by the exciting Broadsiding, who has already got three Group 1 victories on his CV, including the Champagne and Golden Rose Stakes, Too Darn Hot’s fourth Group 2 winner Rivellino made it three-from-three with his nice win in the Skyline. He is one of three Group horses from only 16 runners from Too Darn Hot’s promising second crop.
Things have gone very well for Too Darn Hot up north, too, which is why he’s staying put at the moment. His first two-year-olds featured four Group winners (5.7 per cent) from 70 runners, including Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Fallen Angel. Importantly, the son of Dubawi backed it up with a talented second crop of youngsters, featuring Futurity Trophy winner Hotazhell and Group 2 scorer Simmering.
Meanwhile, first-season star Fallen Angel trained on to bag the Irish 1,000 Guineas while Darnation and Etes Vous Prets were Group 2 winners in Germany and Japan respectively.
As encouraging as his stud career has begun, there is still more for Too Darn Hot to do given the level of support he has attracted in his early years. Of the sires retired to stud since 2013 and later with 350-plus stakes-horses and producers in their first five books, only Frankel and Kingman have had a better percentage of stakes performers and producers.
Currently tracking at 7.1 per cent stakes winners, Too Darn Hot’s score is still well shy of the 13.4 per cent Stakes winners produced by all other sires from the same mares. No doubt as his early crops reach full maturity he should close this gap. In any case, these metrics matter less to breeders when the stallion in question can produce a top-class horses or two along the way, and with a consistent flow of well-bred runners coming on stream, there is every likelihood that will happen. To this end, Too Darn Hot can rely on the fact that the quality of his mares barely dipped from year two to three (this year’s two-year-olds), and while his fourth crop may be his weakest, his fifth is right back up to the class levels of his first.
Comparatively speaking, Too Darn Hot did not rank quite as high in the imagination of Australian breeders in his first year there. In the same timespan 2023 to 2024 there were 30 other stallions with superior first books, compared to just five in Britain and Ireland. He did, however, rank second behind Pierata among his retiring-year cohort with 55 stakes horses and producers, marginally ahead of Blue Point (54) and Yes Yes Yes (53).
It no surprise whatsoever that his third Australian crop are averaging A$233,000 (£115,000) at this year’s yearling auctions, with the Inglis Easter Premier Sale still to come. His 11 colts and seven fillies selling in Sydney are sure to attract plenty of attention given that this is Too Darn Hot’s penultimate Australian-sired crop.
