Too Darn Hot stays smokin' in Sussex Mile

After a cold start to his 3-year-old campaign, the mercury is rising in Too Darn Hot, who fired home with an electric burst to win the Group 1 Sussex Stakes on Wednesday at Goodwood Racecourse.

After a cloudy start to his 2019 season, Europe’s champion 2-year-old of 2018 has warmed to the task in recent weeks. He captured the Prix Jean Prat over a straight seven furlongs at Deauville on July 5 and Too Darn Hot radiated class and talent against a stronger group in the one-mile Sussex.

His margin of victory was a half-length over Circus Maximus, but Too Darn Hot’s superiority was greater than that. Bottled up in traffic under Frankie Dettori until about a furlong and a half remained, Too Darn Hot exploded to the front once clear, his burst of speed calling to mind his best races during a perfect 2-year-old campaign.

Circus Maximus, winner of the St. James’s Palace Stakes, a race in which Too Darn Hot had finished third, was a clear second over his Aidan O’Brien-trained stablemate, I Can Fly. Lord Glitters, who won the Group 1 Queen Anne in his most recent start, was a modest fifth, while Phoenix of Spain for the second time failed to validate his excellent win in the Irish 2000 Guineas, setting the pace but fading to sixth once headed.

The Sussex is a Breeders' Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” race offering automatic fees-paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Mile plus travel expenses to Santa Anita this fall, and that’s a trip that trainer John Gosden and owner Andrew Lloyd Webber appear to have on their agenda.

"He has a lot of pace and a Breeders' Cup Mile would be idea, with a fast two turns. I am sure that it could be the end of season target,” Dettori said.

Too Darn Hot was supposed to run in the Greenham Stakes in April as a prep for the English 2000 Guineas but hurt a splint bone while training, forcing his connections back to the drawing board. Too Darn Hot wound up making his 2019 bow in the 1 5/16-mile Dante Stakes, where he finished second, and subsequently was beaten over a mile in the Irish 2000 Guineas and the St. James’s Palace. But all miles in Europe are not created equal, and both those last two tests pushed past Too Darn Hot’s stamina boundary.

“His best trip is probably seven furlongs,” said Gosden.

Europeans consider a tight-turn one mile with a relatively short stretch like the BC Mile at Santa Anita an easy mile. That’s the type of race in which Too Darn Hot can thrive, and while the colt prefers firmer footing, he won Wednesday over good ground with some cut to it.

Too Darn Hot is by Dubawi out of Dar Re Mi, by Singspiel, and now has a record of 6-2-1 from nine starts.