Frankie Dettori celebrates Too Darn Hot's Sussex Stakes win

Sires Series: Too Darn Hot, not just a flicker

Horse Racing

Wed September 02, 2026 · 1d ago

Pedigree Researcher Sally Wright looks at the race and stud career of new young stallion, Too Darn Hot.

Despite the jazzy, US-sounding name, Too Darn Hot was very much English-bred and foaled in-house in 2016, a product of the legendary miler and sire, Dubawi, and the ‘very smart’ Dar Re Mi (by Singspiel), a mare who won up to a mile-and-a-half.

A bay colt, Too Darn Hot’s pedigree was also loaded with stamina from many European Classic influences, including British/Irish Derby winner Shirley Heights and 2000 Guineas and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Dancing Brave on his sire’s side, and Top Ville/High Top, Sadler’s Wells, Halo and Venture/Relic on his dam’s side.

Described by Timeform as a ‘smallish, good-bodied, attractive colt,’ Too Darn Hot was respectively trained and ridden throughout his racing career by John Gosden and Frankie Dettori, and he proved himself unbeatable as a two-year-old. Injured as a foal and a late starter to the racecourse, he won his debut at Sandown in the August of 2018 by an impressive margin, with Dettori noting that “Any horse winning by seven lengths first time, you've got to take notice.”

Too Darn Hot is away and clear at Sandown

Within around a month, he struck again to take the Solario Stakes at Sandown by four lengths from Arthur Kitt. Timeform said that he had ‘established himself as one of the very best in the division seen so far’ and he followed up in the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster by a length and three-quarters from the Charles Hills-trained Phoenix of Spain, with a couple of talented Aidan O’Brien runners further back.

Too Darn Hot brought the curtain down on a truncated but electric season in the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket, scoring by two-and-three-quarter lengths from Martyn Meade’s Advertise and drawing comparisons to the great Frankel. For these exploits he earned a European champion juvenile title, his victories having come at seven furlongs and a mile and within approximately two months, a quite remarkable feat for one so young.

Back the next season, a splint bone injury having forced him to miss the 2000 Guineas, Timeform felt that he was also possibly just ‘short of peak fitness’ when stepping up to around a mile-and a-quarter for the Dante Stakes and finishing a length further back from the winner, Telecaster.

Within two weeks of that effort, he ran creditably to place three lengths behind his old rival, Phoenix of Spain, in the Irish 2000 Guineas. The next stop was a healthy third-placed effort in the St James’s Palace Stakes behind the O’Brien-trained Circus Maximus and his own stablemate, King of Comedy, going down by only about a length, with Timeform noting that there was ‘a good chance that his lack of stature means that he hasn't made the progress required over the winter to maintain leadership of his generation.’

Almost as if earballing this somewhat slight, Too Darn Hot got back to his very best in his next and final two races, taking the Prix Jean Prat by a commanding three lengths from Space Blues and readily winning the eight-runner Sussex Stakes back in Blighty by a half-length from Circus Maximus, leading his jockey to exclaim “My god he has so much speed – I can't feel my arms at the moment!” Gosden added that “It's wonderful [he] is back, and he's proved that being champion two-year-old was no fluke.” Holding entries in the Sprint Cup and Irish Champion Stakes, and thanks to his epic return of form, Timeform and his connections envisaged a better-suited mile campaign that would take in the Jacques Le Marois, Prix du Moulin, or Breeders’ Cup Mile, but sadly it was not meant to be.

A hairline fracture to the colt’s hind leg emerged after the Sussex and, having been operated on, it was decided that he should retire in triumph to the world-class Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket for the fee of £50,000. He had acted on good to firm as well as good to soft going and his racing record stood at six wins from nine starts, netting over £1.3 million in total prizemoney.

Mirroring his sire’s incredible success at stud, Too Darn Hot became an instant hit. He has shuttled between the Darley operations of Europe and Australia, making a name for himself in both hemispheres. His first crop was born in 2021 and included the star filly, Fallen Angel, rated by Timeform at 122, and whose five Group 1 wins include the Moyglare Stud Stakes at two years and Sun Chariot Stakes at four, scooping up the Irish 1000 Guineas along the way.

Fallen Angel gallops to Guineas glory at the Curragh

On Timeform’s database he has fifteen other runners deemed as ‘smart,’ including Group or Grade 1 winners in Europe to the UAE and US, notably Hotazhell (Futurity Trophy/Grosser Dallmayr-Preis Bayerisches Zuchtrennen), Tornado Alert (Grosser Dallmayr-Preis Bayerisches Zuchtrennen), Native Approach (Al Quoz Sprint), Glacius (Saratoga Derby) and Title Role (Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen/Belmont Derby). With a further fifty or so runners rated as ‘useful’ he was second behind Blue Point across European First, Second and Third Crop Sires Lists by total prizemoney from 2023 to 2025, and has nicked particularly well with mares by Galileo, Exceed And Excel, Fastnet Rock and Shamardal.

But it has been in the southern hemisphere where he has arguably shone the brightest. Claiming First and Second Season Sire titles for 2023 to 2025 in Australia, he broke records with AU$4 million in total prizemoney for a first-season sire and then made over AU$10 million in his second season, fielding fifty-eight winners from just ninety-eight runners in the latter term.

His breakthrough success has sent his stud fee through the roof to a current AU$275,000. His best there is undoubtedly Broadsiding, a juvenile champion who won several Group 1 events, including the Golden Rose Stakes at seven furlongs and the mile-and-a-quarter Rosehill Guineas, and who now stands with his sire at Darley’s New South Wales breeding operation. Tropicus took the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate sprint at Caulfield this year, carrying the heaviest win weight since metrics began in Australia in 1973, and more recently Afireofgidgeecoals caused an upset in the Group 2 Karrakatta Plate at six furlongs.

Such is the rising commercial demand for Too Darn Hot that at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale in Australia this year he made over AU$6.7 million with nine offerings, including a record-breaking price of AU$2.2 million for one of his sons. With their versatility and toughness over a range of distances, conditions and race grades, the progeny of Too Darn Hot look set to keep his flame lit indefinitely.