Timeform Awards: First-season sire - Too Darn Hot

WINNER: TOO DARN HOT (99)

Prize money is the measure by which the title of leading first-season sire in Britain and Ireland is traditionally decided. But that clearly favours sires with the largest crops and greatest number of runners, and while it’s broadly true that the best horses win the contests with the most money on offer, the existence of valuable sales races, and maidens that are worth more than Group 3 contests, means that’s a very crude way of measuring the overall merit of a sire’s first crop.

Instead, Timeform’s approach is to level the playing field by simply taking the ten highest-rated progeny of any first-season sire who has had ten or more runners in Britain or Ireland – effectively treating a sire with 90 runners just the same as one with only a dozen runners – and ranking them by the average rating of their best runners.

Blue Point – who has had by far the largest number of individual runners of any first-season sire - is set to be the year’s leading sire by prize money but he takes second place in Timeform’s rankings based on average rating behind his Darley stud-mate Too Darn Hot who has an average of 99.

The son of Dubawi was a very successful two-year-old himself for John Gosden, winning all four of his starts in his first season, including the Solario Stakes, Champagne Stakes and Dewhurst Stakes to become Timeform’s top-rated two-year-old of 2018 with a rating of 127p. In the summer of the following season, Too Darn Hot returned to his best to win two more Group 1 contests, the Prix Jean Prat and Sussex Stakes, before a leg injury ended his career prematurely. Standing at Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket, Too Darn Hot’s first crop numbering 115 foals was bred at a fee of £50,000.

Too Darn Hot’s own debut as a two-year-old didn’t come until August and there were always going to be other first-season sires likely to be quicker out of the blocks. He had only three winners on the board by the start of July but in the second half of the season his winners began to flow.

Too Darn Hot’s highest-rated runner was the Owen Burrows-trained colt Alyanaabi (112) who progressed with each run, winning the Somerville Tattersall Stakes before finding only the season’s top two-year-old City of Troy too strong in the Dewhurst.

His first crop also included a Group 1 winner, with the Karl Burke-trained filly Fallen Angel (110p) winning the Moyglare Stud Stakes on her final outing. She too improved with each of her races and besides being her sire’s first Group 1 winner, she was also his very first winner, in a novice at Haydock at the end of May, his first to earn some black type, finishing second in a listed race at Sandown next time, and his first pattern winner when successful in the Group 3 Sweet Solera Stakes at Newmarket in August.

Two more of Too Darn Hot’s daughters won pattern races, with Fallen Angel’s stablemate Darnation (105) winning the Prestige Stakes at Goodwood and the May Hill Stakes at Doncaster, while the Charlie Johnston-trained Carolina Reaper (93) was well placed in Germany to win the Group 3 Zukunfts-Rennen at Baden-Baden.

A total of five of Too Darn Hot’s first crop earned ratings in excess of 100, the others being the colts Boiling Point (105), beaten a short head by Alyanaabi in the Somerville Tattersall Stakes, and Son (104) who was listed placed but ran his best race when fifth in the Royal Lodge Stakes. Boiling Point and Carolina Reaper, incidentally, are both out of mares by another Dewhurst winner Shamardal.

Also among Too Darn Hot’s ten best two-year-olds were a couple of well-bred colts with a ‘p’ attached to their ratings indicating they could well make into useful three-year-olds. Juddmonte’s Formal Display (93p) won a maiden at Dundalk for Ger Lyons on his final start, while Godolphin’s Point Sur (92p) showed a good attitude to win a novice on the second of his two outings at Newmarket and is bred to do well over middle distances next year.

Blue Point, with an average of 96, had almost twice as many individual winners and wins as Too Darn Hot and had two stand-out performers in a huge first crop. One was the Richard Hannon-trained Rosallion (116p) who won three of his four starts, including the listed Pat Eddery Stakes at Ascot, a race which worked out particularly well as Rosallion was one of three subsequent Group 1 winners to come from it when successful in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. Rosallion stays seven furlongs, though would need to settle better to get a mile, whereas Blue Point’s other smart colt, Big Evs, is an out-and-out sprinter like his sire and raced only at the minimum trip, winning the Windsor Castle Stakes, Molecomb Stakes, Flying Childers and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

Coolmore pair Calyx and Ten Sovereigns both achieved averages of 93 with their top ten performers, their first crops bred from similar stud fees of €22,500 and €25,000. Four of Calyx’s top ten were out of Galileo mares, including his highest-rated horse Eben Shaddad (109p). The US-bred colt made a winning debut for John & Thady Gosden at Newmarket before going on to finish third in the Somerville Tattersall Stakes and Dewhurst Stakes. Calyx’s top-rated filly in Britain, another out of a Galileo mare, was Persian Dreamer (101), winner of the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes for Dominic Ffrench Davis but his best filly in Europe was another Group 2 winner, the French-trained Classic Flower (105), who ended her campaign with a win in the Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte.

Most of Ten Sovereigns’ best horses were trained in Ireland but his stand-out performer was the likeable Inquisitively (110p) who won both his starts after joining Kevin Philippart de Foy, a listed race at the Ebor meeting and the Cornwallis Stakes which he won decisively with a smart effort. Ten Sovereigns’ other leading performers included Round Tower Stakes runner-up Mansa Musa (100) and Nor Time Nor Tide (98p) who was more of a staying type, winning his last two starts over a mile, including a minor event at Listowel.

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