FRANKIE’S TOO HOT TO HANDLE
TOO DARN HOT’s reputation was totally restored yesterday with victory in the sussex stakes, as another Group One win was claimed by the all-conquering John GosdenFrankie dettori combination.
The win marked jockey dettori’s 11th Group One success this season.
Fears about the effectiveness over a mile of the evens favourite evaporated as dettori extricated Too darn Hot from a tight spot to win by a cosy half a length from Circus Maximus. This was revenge for Too darn Hot over the winner of the st James’s Palace stakes at royal Ascot.
Too darn Hot had been the champion two-year-old last year, but injury disrupted his preparation this term and saw him miss the 2,000 Guineas. The colt then failed to stay ten furlongs on his return in the dante stakes at York in May and was beaten in the irish Guineas and at royal Ascot. success in the seven-furlong Prix Jean Prat at deauville earlier this month had put the colt’s season back on track.
The horse’s trainer, Gosden, has conceded the decisions taken in the spring by him and simon Marsh, the racing manager to Too darn Hot’s owner-breeders Lord and Lady Lloyd Webber, had been a mistake.
But yesterday’s win makes Too darn Hot look ready to set out on the remainder of a season which will culminate in the Breeders’ Cup Mile and, at least, take in the Prix du Moulin along the way. ‘What caught him out was the stiff mile at the Curragh when we ran him back too soon after the dante, and the stiff mile with the rain at Ascot,’ Gosden said. ‘He is an out-and-out speed horse.
‘This horse has fortunately overcome his owner’s racing manager and trainer. We got it wrong but the horse has come right. He has proven being champion two-year-old last year was no fluke.’
Having also taken the King George on saturday with enable and the Goodwood Cup on Tuesday with stradivarius, Gosden and dettori have won three Group One races in five days. For 48-year-old dettori, his career best of 16 Group Ones in a season, in 2001, is within touching distance.
dettori admitted he has been feeling the big-race pressure. He said: ‘i have had an amazing summer. i was waiting for Too darn Hot in the paddock and i said: “John, i will probably need a heart transplant by the end of the week’’. He replied: “shut up, you love it!’’ Maybe he is right.
‘Too darn Hot has been very unlucky but we finally got a good run at this race. He has now won a proper Group One in this country and his reputation is back to where it should be.’
Also heading to the Breeders’ Cup seems to be Liberty Beach, who overcame trouble in running to win the Molecomb stakes by a length from Alligator Alley. Trainer John Quinn is now eyeing the Juvenile Turf sprint at santa Anita in California in november.