FRANKIE’S GOT A HOT ONE FOR GUINEAS
TOO DARN HOT enters winter quarters as the 5-4 favourite for the 2,000 Guineas after dashing to a brilliant victory in the Darley Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket.
The John Gosden juvenile, who was running in the colours of Lord Andrew and Lady Madeleine Lloyd-webber, was sent off at Evens.
Unbeaten in three previous starts, this was his first foray into Group 1 company.
And, despite briefly losing his poise running downhill into the Rowley Mile’s ‘Dip’ over a furlong from the finish, Too Darn Hot streaked up the hill under Frankie Dettori – who like Gosden landed the Dewhurst for the first time – for a two-and-three-quarter-length supremacy.
The winning jockey, who spent most of the last 100 yards blowing kisses to the crowd, beamed: “He was going so fast, I thought, ‘There’s no way anybody can get near this!’
“He’s a great little horse. Once the turbo kicked in, I went from being a length behind a furlong out to pulling clear. Now we can dream.”
Gosden added: “He was definitely not loving running into the Dip – he wasn’t comfortable there at all – but he’s got the class to overcome it.
“He’s a very brave little horse – he’s 100 per cent with you. He’s a great guy.”
Willie Mullins added the Dubai £500,000 Cesarewitch Handicap to his CV when 10-1 shot Low Sun and Seamie Heffernan proved a neck too strong for stablemate Uradel at the end of the historic race.
“He was on the ‘selling’ list,” Mullins revealed of the Rich Ricci-owned victor. “But he kept winning and winning and doing things right.”