'It was a pure horse welfare situation' - Marsh reveals reason for decision not to shuttle Too Darn Hot

Champion international stallion Too Darn Hot had to be taken out of service for almost a fortnight during the recent northern hemisphere breeding season, the untimely illness leading to the sire's shock withdrawal from Australian shuttling duties this spring.

The disclosure of the minor setback suffered at Newmarket’s Dalham Hall Stud comes as those close to the rising star at Watership Down Stud, which owns the stallion in partnership with Godolphin, reflect on the enormous impact the sire has made on both sides of the globe in a short space of time.

In doing so, UK-based Watership Down Stud general manager Simon Marsh revealed the difficult commercial decision not to shuttle the highly promising sire to Darley’s Hunter Valley operation Kelvinside this year had been made with the horse’s best interests at heart. 

Too Darn Hot has shuttled for four consecutive southern hemisphere breeding seasons and he recently completed his fifth on home soil in the UK.

Marsh told ANZ Bloodstock News: “This year, he missed [almost] two weeks in the middle of the season. We felt he was so important and we felt that it was like a warning sign [to us] that for the welfare of the horse the most sensible thing to do was to not shuttle him this year.

“We are completely leaving the door open to him shuttling again in future years. It was a pure horse welfare situation. He recovered from it fantastically and he finished his season well. He’s got as many mares in foal this year as he ever has done and the horse is back in great shape.”

Simon Marsh: "We are completely leaving the door open to him shuttling again in future years"Credit: Laura Green

The sire of 12 individual Australian first-crop winners last season, headlined by Godolphin’s homebred dual Group 1-winning colt Broadsiding and five other stakes horses, champion European two- and three-year-old Too Darn Hot was awarded the coveted first-season sires’ title with progeny earnings of A$4.165 million (£2.1m/€2.5m).

During a period when Australian breeders are waiting for the next champions to emerge as successors to I Am Invincible and Written Tycoon, news that Too Darn Hot would not be returning to Australia this season was seen by many to be a significant blow to the nation’s commercial breeders seeking a sire on the rise, particularly one with such a deep outcross pedigree. 

In April, Too Darn Hot had been announced as returning for the forthcoming southern hemisphere season at a fee of A$110,000, more than double the A$44,000 he’d stood for in his first four years at Darley’s Kelvinside.

However, less than three months later on July 1, Darley Australia confirmed that Too Darn Hot would not shuttle down under, setting off a mad reshuffling of breeders’ mare bookings for the upcoming season, which starts on September 1.

Of the timing of the decision to keep Too Darn Hot in Europe, Marsh said: “In retrospect, it would have been great if we had been able to make the announcement earlier.

“We are disappointed for the Australian breeders as much as anything, but, as I say, this is not to say the horse will never come back down again.”

Too Darn Hot: sire of Group 1 winners in Europe and AustraliaCredit: Darley

Marsh added: “We are grateful for the support the Australian breeders have given the horse over the past few years, none more so than from Peter O’Brien and Segenhoe Stud. It was fantastic that they were rewarded at Magic Millions this year, selling a colt for A$1.9m. They have been great believers in the horse from the moment he went out there.

“As have the Darley and Godolphin team at Kelvinside who have been fantastic in looking after the horse and everything they’ve done to get the mares to him and get him to the stage that we’re at now. The same can be said for the team at Darley in Newmarket.” 

On the back of a strong start with his first crop two-year-olds, including pre-Christmas stakes-placed Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained filly Arabian Summer, Too Darn Hot’s stocks also rose at the Australasian sales earlier this year, with his second-crop yearlings selling for up to A$1.9m at the Magic Millions Gold Coast sale in January and a filly going to A$600,000 at the Inglis Classic sale in Sydney a month later.

Despite the fact Too Darn Hot is not returning to Australia this year, Marsh suggests that the sire is likely to cover up to 60 mares to southern hemisphere time from September to December.

Godolphin, Yulong, Watership Down Stud, Newgate Farm, Rosemont Stud, Bruce Wilson’s Glentree Thoroughbreds and Western Australian breeder Gary Johnson are sending mares to Too Darn Hot in the UK this year, as is Segenhoe Stud and John Camilleri, who bred and sold the A$1.9m yearling by the sire out of Group 3-winning mare A Time For Julia earlier this year.

It’s not just Australia where the former John Gosden trainee Too Darn Hot has made an immediate impression, either. In the northern hemisphere, where he stood for an increased fee of £65,000, he has sired 11 stakes winners from 127 runners from two crops of racing age and was recently crowned champion Britain-based first-season sire. 

Fallen Angel: winner of this year's Irish 1,000 GuineasCredit: Patrick McCann

Among them is dual Group 1-winning filly Fallen Angel and Group 2-winning fillies Darnation and Etes Vous Prets, the latter a stakes winner in Japan. Since June, Too Darn Hot has sired four stakes winners in the northern hemisphere, two of them being two-year-olds Simmering and Hotazhell. Fellow juvenile Hot Darling also won a stakes race earlier in the season in France.

Marsh said: “He appeared to have the profile to make it as a stallion. He’s out of a brilliant Group 1-winning mare, he’s a half-brother to some wonderful stakes-winning fillies. 

“His dam is a half-sister to three other Group 1 winners, she’s out of a Group 1 winner who is a half-sister to one of the great stallions in Europe in Darshaan, so his depth of pedigree is incredible. Dar Re Mi was a wonderful race mare, she won three Group 1s, and Dubawi is one of the greatest stallions of all time. 

“You put it all together and he’s a champion two-year-old and a champion three-year-old and had fantastic speed as well. 

“He ticks all the boxes, but becoming a proven stallion is another step forward. At the moment, he seems to be doing absolutely everything he possibly could.”

Too Darn Hot covered 122 mares in Australia last year and he has 87 just turned yearlings on the ground, with 94 second-crop two-year-olds currently undergoing their early education.

Among the Australian stakes-performed Too Darn Hots is new season three-year-old Too Darn Lizzie, a A$1m filly owned by Lord Lloyd-Webber and Lizzie Spender, widow of Australian comedian Barry Humphries. She was purchased by agent Johnny McKeever, another big believer in the stallion from the start who played a key role in promoting the sire to Australian breeders and owners at Magic Millions in January 2023.

Trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Too Darn Lizzie won the A$500,000 The Debut at the Gold Coast in January before subsequently finishing third in the Reisling Stakes. 

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