Too Darn Hot vies for BC spot

Too Darn Hot can take another step toward restoring his outsized reputation as a 2-year-old when he starts as the favorite in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes on Wednesday at Goodwood Racecourse in England.

He can also earn a guaranteed spot plus free entry and travel expenses to the Breeders’ Cup Mile, since the Sussex is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” series. Too Darn Hot’s connections, owner Andrew Lloyd Webber and trainer John Gosden, already have expressed an interest in traveling to Santa Anita this fall with Too Darn Hot should the talented 3-year-old merit the trip.

Too Darn Hot is one of eight entered in the Sussex, a meandering one-mile race over Goodwood’s irregular course, which was called “good” as of Monday but could be hit by heavy early-week rain.

Too Darn Hot has only raced on good or good-to-firm courses since he won his career debut last year over a good-to-soft course. That was one of four wins during a perfect 2-year-old campaign, capped by victory in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes that yielded European championship honors, but Too Darn Hot’s 3-year-old season has been more undulating than the Goodwood course. A spring setback cost Too Darn Hot key training time during the lead-up to the Classic races, and Too Darn Hot finished second in the Dante Stakes, second in the Irish 2000 Guineas, and third in the St. James’s Palace Stakes before finally notching his first win this year when Gosden sent him to France for the seven-furlong Prix Jean Prat on July 7 at Deauville.

Too Darn Hot rolled to a comfortable victory there, but Wednesday’s race is tougher. While Lord Glitters at 10-1 in early-week betting with overseas bookmakers is the shortest-priced older horse in the Sussex, a pair of 3-year-olds, Circus Maximus especially and Phoenix of Spain less so, could give Too Darn Hot all he wants.

Both, in fact, already have, with Phoenix of Spain capturing the Irish 2000 at Too Darn Hot’s expense and Circus Maximus landing the St. James’s Palace. Phoenix of Spain regressed in the St. James’s Palace, finishing sixth in a race in which Circus Maximus, cutting back to one mile from the 1 ½-mile Derby at Epsom, turned in a powerful performance. Lord Glitters, meanwhile, rebounded from a dismal showing in the J.T. Lockinge Stakes to capture the Queen Anne over a straight-course mile on opening day of the Royal Ascot meeting.

Post time for the Sussex is set for 10:35 a.m. Eastern.