JJ Atkins next for classy Broadsiding
Broadsiding (Too Darn Hot) provided a stunning reminder of his likely imposing career ahead and further heralded the rise of his burgeoning star sire with a storming victory in Saturday’s Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) at Eagle Farm.
The Godolphin homebred colt had shown his quality in breaking his maiden on his fourth outing to win Randwick’s Fernhill Stakes (Listed, 1600m) on April 13, a performance he then backed up a week later with a grinding success in the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), splashing home by 0.76 lengths on a heavy 10.
He’d led home compact fields of 11 and eight in each respectively, but on Saturday he faced the daunting task of barrier 17 of 18 in a quality field befitting the race’s $1 million prize-money.
It all came the same to Broadsiding.
After rider Jamie Kah elected to settle third-last, the colt couldn’t gain clear air until hooked around heels at the 350-metre mark, but then powered down the outside to score by a comfortable 0.95 lengths.
The triumph was validation for punters who’d backed him in late to $2.60 favouritism, eschewing a handful of vaunted rivals at or around single figure odds. And Broadsiding was the only one of the fancied runners to stand up, on a wearing soft 6 track, with the minor placings taken by locals Zouna (Zousain) at $61, and Superalloy (Too Darn Hot) at $101.
Not only did Darley’s emerging shuttle sensation Too Darn Hot seal a 1-3 in the race, the result tightened his grip on Australia’s first-season sires’ title, while also pushing the seven-year-old into the top two in the two-year-old division.
Too Darn Hot began the day more than $900,000 clear of second-placed Tassort (Brazen Beau) atop the debutant sires’ chart. However, Saturday’s first and third placing in the Sires’ added another $690,000 to his ledger, with Broadsiding again swapping places with last week’s $1 million Magic Million National 2YO Classic (1050m) winner Arabian Summer as the stallion’s highest earner.
And Too Darn Hot’s immediate impact in Australia was further borne out by the fact the result lifted him past Coolmore’s Justify (Scat Daddy) into second place on the two-year-old sires’ table. He’s now behind only runaway leader Written Tycoon (Iglesia), sire of Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Lady Of Camelot, on those standings, leaving others such as fourth-placed Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and tenth-ranked Exceed And Excel (Danehill) and in his wake.
Broadsiding was tightened into a dominant $2 favourite for the JJ Atkins (Gr 1, 1600m) after Saturday. Success in the season’s last two-year-old feature would still leave Too Darn Hot more than half a million dollars shy of Written Tycoon. But it would further enshrine him as an unqualified success in his first season of runners here, and again vindicate Darley’s recent decision to more than double his service fee – from $44,000 (inc GST) to $110,000 (inc GST) – for his coming fifth Australian spring at their Kelvinside Stud base.
By winners, Too Darn Hot sits equal-third with Headwater (Exceed And Excel) on the juvenile sires’ table with nine, behind Written Tycoon’s 12 and Snitzel’s 11.
Among first-season sires, Too Darn Hot – co-owned by Darley and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Watership Down Stud – is also on top by winners and earnings.
Godolphin trainer James Cummings was effusive in his praise of Broadsiding, hailing him as an ‘incredible two-year-old’, while the trainer was quick to praise Kah for smoothly dodging interference in the run.
“He’s a class animal and an outstanding effort to win considering the difficulties he had to overcome,” Cummings said. “Broadsiding has a devastating turn of foot, doesn’t he?
“There was a bit of traffic in the early and middle stages. Turning for home, there was a lot going on. I guess the horse’s experience shone through but Jame Kah also kept a very calm demeanour about herself, really.
“He’s a very good two-year-old and that was a good set up for the JJ Atkins in two weeks. The horse is class and we’re lucky to have him.”
Kah, who’d previously partnered Broadsiding in his third-start third in Group 3 class at Rosehill on March 30, was greatly impressed by the colt on Saturday and said he “wasn’t entitled” to win as comfortably as he did, given the traffic encountered in the run.
“It was a bit yucky. There was a lot going on and this this horse was just all class,” she said.
“When I rode him a few starts back I though he was classy. He’s a group one winner, came back and won the Champagne.
“But even good horses shouldn’t win like that today, because he had no favours at all.”
Kah said the 1600-metre trip of the JJ Atkins would “not at all” be a problem for the colt.
“I love the way he relaxed. There was a lot going on and he didn’t care. He just came back to me. He was like riding a pony out here today. He was great,” she said.
Broadsiding is the third and final foal out of the Darley-bred mare Speedway (Street Cry), a half-sister to Group 1 winner Flit (Lonhro) and a dual provincial winner who died in 2022.
The colt’s gelded three-year-old brother No Brakes was recently transferred from Godolphin to Brisbane trainer Tony Gollan, having sold for $14,000 on an Inglis Digital Sale last November. The gelding one unplaced barrier trial to his name.