Weekend Reflections: Too Darn Hot Leads New Wave of Stallions

[Wandering Eyes]

It may not have been obvious at the time but with the benefit of almost 20 years' hindsight it is now clear that the retirement to stud in 2006 of both Dubawi (Ire) and Shamardal was a pivotal moment for the Darley operation, and indeed the European stallion scene.

There is now no shortage of their male-line descendants at stud and, in Blue Point (Ire) and Too Darn Hot (GB) in particular, their legacy looks assured within the Darley ranks. 

The pair ended last year as first and second in the second-crop sires' table in Europe, with a Classic winner each from their first batch of runners in Rosallion (Ire) and Fallen Angel (GB) and three Group/Grade 1 winners apiece. It is fair to say that this is a pretty spectacular start to their stud careers.

While Blue Point has been marginally ahead in Europe, it is Too Darn Hot who so far holds the bragging rights in Australia, where the two again hold the top two spots in the second-season sires' tables, only in the reverse order. Too Darn Hot didn't shuttle last season but his results from his first two years down under are such that Australian breeders have been keen to send mares to him in Newmarket to be covered to southern hemisphere time, as detailed by our sister publication The Thoroughbred Report. 

Along with Fallen Angel and the Blue Diamond Stud-bred Classic prospect Hotazhell (GB), Too Darn Hot is responsible for Godolphin's Australian champion two-year-old of last year, Broadsiding (Aus), who at the weekend added the G2 Hobartville Stakes at Rosehill to his list of six victories, which include three at the highest level. Broadsiding was one of three group winners for Too Darn Hot in Australia on Saturday, the other two coming at Caulfield with the win of Shanwah (NZ) in the G2 Autumn Classic and Tropicus in the G3 Zeditave Stakes. Incidentally, Broadsiding, Shanwah and Tropicus are out of mares by Street Cry (Ire), Iffraaj (GB) and Exceed And Excel respectively, to lend those results a proper Darley feel. 

Too Darn Hot could well be set for another big year in Europe with further potential Classic contenders in Al Shaqab's G1 Moyglare Stud Stakes runner-up Simmering (GB) and Amo Racing's G3 Oh So Sharp Stakes second Cathedral (GB). But then, so could Blue Point, via his emerging sprint star Kind Of Blue (GB) and a hoped-for return of Rosallion, one of the most exciting horses of the first half of last season following his victories in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and St James's Palace Stakes. 

 

Blue Point | Darley

 

Just for good measure, Too Darn Hot may even have a runner at the Cheltenham Festival if the Joseph O'Brien-trained Grade 3-winning hurdler Naturally Nimble (Ger) takes his place in the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle. Lest the purists among us get all (too darn) hot under the collar about this inclusion, let's not forget that Dubawi himself supplied the G1 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner a decade ago in Dodging Bullets (GB), bred by none other than Lanfranco Dettori. It takes a proper horse to win a top jumps race.

Dubawi, at 23, may be covering carefully managed books these days but they still contain plenty of Europe's elite mares including, this season, Arc winner Bluestocking (GB) (Camelot {GB}) and two multiple Group 1-winning daughters of Frankel (GB) in Nashwa (GB) and Inspiral (GB). At Darley alone, his stallion sons include another of Europe's leading stallions, Night Of Thunder (Ire), Ghaiyyath (Ire), of whom there are high expectations this year, Modern Games (GB), Space Blues (GB) and Naval Crown (GB).

As our accompanying feature today shows, the legacy of Shamardal, who died in 2020, is secure not just at Darley, which also stands his sons Pinatubo (Ire), Earthlight (Ire) and Victor Ludorum (Ire), but notably at Ballylinch Stud. Lope De Vega (Ire) has become Shamardal's most successful son worldwide and is on his way to establishing a dynasty of his own.

From the group of stallions who retired to stud in 2020, the only other horse apart from Blue Point and Too Darn Hot to be in double digits when it comes to the number of stakes performers is the Lanwades sire Study Of Man (Ire). He had 10 black-type horses in Europe last year compared to Blue Point's 17 and Too Darn Hot's 11, and this achievement is all the more noteworthy considering he had only 75 runners, in contrast to 202 for Blue Point and 154 for Too Darn Hot. 

Study Of Man's sole Group 1 winner to date, Juddmonte's Kalpana (GB), remains in training, and her trainer Andrew Balding also has the promising Almeric (GB) for Kirsten Rausing. The grey colt was selected by Adam Houghton as one of his top 10 under-the-radar three-year-olds to keep an eye on for the season ahead. 

It will be fascinating to chart this trio of young stallions as their careers progress and it would certainly be a bonus if Study Of Man – followed by Auguste Rodin (Ire) – could help the Deep Impact/Sunday Silence line to blossom in this part of the world. There have been previous attempts from other representatives in this regard without widespread success.

It is also worth noting that Study Of Man's close relative Real Steel (Jpn) has provided the horse who can currently be regarded as the best dirt runner in the world: the tough-as-teak Forever Young (Jpn), winner of Saturday's G1 Saudi Cup.

By Deep Impact (Jpn), Real Steel also has Miesque as an ancestor. She features as his third dam, while she is the second dam of Study Of Man, but both stallions are out of daughters of Storm Cat. In Real Steel's case that mare is Loves Only Me, whose successful liaisons with Deep Impact also resulted in the top-class filly Loves Only You (Jpn), winner of the Japanese Oaks, Hong Kong Cup and Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

 

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