Arabian Summer scores lucrative win at Doomben
Darley shuttler Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) took a leap up the two-year-old sires’ table, tightening his stranglehold on the first season title, and gained further credence for his substantial service fee hike when his star daughter Arabian Summer triumphed at Doomben on Saturday.
The Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained filly dropped another strong hint of a glorious sprinting future awaiting by claiming her third win from six starts in a class field contesting the inaugural $1 million Magic Millions National 2YO Classic (1050m).
And she did so in stunning style. Despite jumping from gate six of 12 for Harry Coffey, Arabian Summer was forced to travel no better than four-wide throughout, a feat made more meritorious by Doomben’s 1050-metre trip featuring a 100-metre dash to the first bend and a curved run from the 900 metres to the 300 metres and the entrance to the straight.
Coffey had to take his medicine, easing from the leading pack to midfield, and Arabian Summer responded magnificently. She burst to the lead at the 200-metre mark, before showing enough strength despite her earlier toils to stave off Team Snowden colt King Of Roseau (Capitalist) to her inside and win by 0.3 lengths.
Snowden stablemate Embassy (I Am Invincible) – $625,000 Gold Coast buy for China Horse Club, Newgate, Go Bloodstock and Trilogy – took third two lengths away, with Ciaron Maher’s $3.10 second-favourite Spywire (Trapeze Artist) a further 0.5 lengths away in fourth.
Arabian Summer, a $220,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale purchase at Book 2, earned $590,000 to raise her career haul to $943,600. That took her back past ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Broadsiding ($744,675) to reclaim her mantle as Too Darn Hot’s leading Australian earner.
It also boosted Darley’s seven-year-old from fourth to third on the two-year-old sires’ table by earnings, past Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and little more than $100,000 behind Justify (Scat Daddy), who’s second behind runaway leader Written Tycoon (Iglesia). Too Darn Hot was already third by winners, with nine.
The result also pushed Too Darn Hot further clear in top spot on the first season sires’ table. Second-placed Tassort (Brazen Beau) had a chance to overtake him in Saturday’s race, but his runner Astapor could manage only fifth, leaving Too Darn Hot some $860,000 clear.
Brisbane’s winter carnival offers two more major chances for juvenile riches in the 2023-24 season, in the BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) and the JJ Atkins (Gr 1, 1600m), both at Eagle Farm and both worth $1 million.
And with Godolphin’s Broadsiding currently dominating markets for the two events, the main question regarding first season sires might be who will be Too Darn Hot’s highest earner, rather than which sire will take the title. Too Darn Hot also leads that table by winners, with nine to the seven of Tassort and Zousain (Zoustar).
Too Darn Hot has one stakes winner among his nine winners from 25 starters.
All of which offers some justification for Darley’s recent substantial hike the service fee of Too Darn Hot – co-owned with Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Watership Down Stud – more than doubling it from $44,000 (inc GST) to $110,000 (inc GST) for his fifth Australian spring.
Even considering the nature of Arabian Summer’s win, perhaps its most stunning aspect was that she was sent out an easing $12 chance on a Soft6 track, having won and run second on soft before.
She began her career with seconds in Caulfield’s Debutant Stakes (Listed, 1000m) and Flemington’s Ottawa Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m), before dominant victories in Ballarat and the Gold Coast’s key Magic Millions lead-ups. Then came a fair fifth in the $3 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m), fading slightly in her only try at that distance.
Three months later, having spelled in the Queensland sun, she was about to be recalled to Ballarat.
Instead, she was sent almost as an afterthought into Saturday’s event – rescheduled from its original designation as a 1000-metre dash at the Gold Coast when its new track was deemed unfit for racing. Co-trainer Calvin McEvoy admitted the new race had caught he and father Tony a little by surprise.
“She spelled up here,” Calvin said at Doomben after the race. “Julian Blaxland and Kacy Fogden, they did the pre-training with her. She was about to be booked to come back to Victoria and our racing manager alerted us to the race.”
McEvoy said the stable “would have been mad to bring her back” to Victoria, but added “she’s going to get a rude shock when she gets back to the Ballarat winter”.
While her Queensland working holiday appears over, McEvoy said there may be a chance to add black-type – and earnings – this season for Arabian Summer, in Morphettville’s Lightning Stakes (Listed, 1050m), for two and three-year-olds, on July 27.
Coffey was full of praise for the filly after the race.
“She was very tough today. She’s a real professional,” he said.
“She didn’t have the easiest of runs. I was a bit exposed wide out bit I got a nice cart around the bend following Embassy. He took us to a nice part of the track and she let down well. The last 50 metres was a bit scary but that is always the case.”
The Moody-Coleman trained $2.40 favourite Eneeza (Exceed And Excel) – the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) fourth-placegetter and the last-start winner of Randwick’s Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) – struggled up an unfavourable inside run in the straight to finish seventh.