Sizzling Dettori strikes again on revitalised Too Darn Hot
Champion juvenile back to best in Sussex Stakes Jockey lands 11th Group One win in two months
The first half of the season might have been a bit lukewarm for Too Darn Hot but the champion twoyear-old took a major leap towards becoming champion at three with an assured victory in yesterday’s £1million Qatar Sussex Stakes.
Being hemmed in until a furlong and a half out meant Frankie Dettori had no choice but to wait and not get drawn into a slog with Circus Maximus. But when the door opened Too Darn Hot’s turn of foot was decisive and he shot past the Irish colt to win by a comfortable half-a-length.
“Frankie knew it would get tight,” said trainer John Gosden, who has provided nine of Dettori’s 11 Group One winners since Oaks day in June. “I said just be patient and if you don’t get through people will understand. Seven furlongs is probably Too Darn Hot’s best trip but the stiff mile at The Curragh and the stiff mile at Ascot with rain caught him out.
“He missed the Greenham, missed the Guineas and should never have run in the Dante, mea culpa, and we rushed him back for Ireland. We’ve done nothing but get it wrong, the trainer and the manager. It is wonderful to have him back and proves it was no fluke he was champion at two. But Aidan O’brien ran Circus Maximus in the Derby so we can all make mistakes!”
Dettori said: “He had a good run at this and was working well. Getting his head in front in France did him good. His reputation is back to where it should be. Once he hit top gear I knew the race was over.
“I’m having an amazing run, not just winning Group Ones but mammoth races like the King George, the Gold Cup, the Eclipse. John just puts them on a plate for me. But when I came into the paddock today I said ‘I’ll need a heart transplant by the end of the week’ and he said ‘Shut up, you love it’. Maybe he is right.”
It was a good day for Yorkshire on the South Downs. John Quinn won the Markel Insurance Molecomb Stakes with the speedy Liberty Beach before redirecting her sights on the Prix Morny, the Prix de l’abbaye and the Breeders’ Cup. “I’ve been training two-yearolds long enough not to worry about next year until next year,” he said.
At home the flooding has ruined six furlongs of a gallop and flooded Mark Johnston’s house, but a double with Sir Ron Priestley (Unibet Handicap) and Mrs Bouquet (Alice Keppel Stakes) took him to two landmarks; his record-extending 50th winner in July while, at Glorious Goodwood specifically, it was his 80th winner.
The Gosden-dettori axis has a chance of making it four Group Ones in six days with Mehdaayih in today’s Nassau Stakes. In their current form it is probably unwise to go against them, but the Prix Diane winner, Channel, can give the meeting a French flavour by proving too strong for her.