Too Darn Hot’s half-sister set for The Autumn Sun after Arrowfield’s high-stakes Tatts raid
A sibling to the influential Too Darn Hot will be sent to the Hunter Valley next year after Arrowfield paid 1.3 million guineas for a half-sister to the star Darley stallion at Tattersalls in the UK.
Arrowfield Stud is getting behind its high-class sire The Autumn Sun, Australia’s premier stallion so far this season, with the 1.3 million guineas (A$2.745 million) purchase of a half-sister to Too Darn Hot.
Among the 13 million guinea lots sold on the second day at Tattersalls December Mares’ Sale was the Arrowfield acquired Chere Darmoiselle, an unraced half-sister to champion dual-hemisphere stallion Too Darn Hot, Group 2 winner Lah Ti Dar and Group 3 winner So Mi Dar.
Chere Darmoiselle, who is in foal to Zarak to northern hemisphere time, is by the influential Juddmonte-based stallion Kingman.
Yulong-related entity Sugar Whiskey Trading bought day two’s highest-priced mare, France Group 1 winner Barnavarva, for 4.8 million guineas while Coolmore’s MV Magnier was busy, signing for four seven-figure mares at Tattersalls on Tuesday including four-time Group 1 winner Porta Fortuna for 4.5 million guineas.
Arrowfield’s Jon Freyer, who is in Newmarket for the mares’ sale, said the opportunity to buy a mare from the influential Too Darn Hot family was too hard to pass up.
Chere Darmoiselle was sold by Watership Down Stud, which co-owns Too Darn Hot, the Darley stallion who is the sire of 30 stakes winners globally and 13 in Australia headed by Godolphin’s four-time Group 1 winner Broadsiding.
“We will leave her here to foal and we will bring her home in the autumn here, the spring at home,” Freyer said.
“She has been bought for The Autumn Sun, who we stand, and we are big fans of Too Darn Hot. We sent him half a dozen mares this year. We love that family and the opportunity to buy a filly out of the family was too good to resist.”
The Autumn Sun, who was sidelined from the 2024 breeding season due to injury, is the sire of 10 stakes winners, five at Group 1 level including the unbeaten four-year-old Autumn Glow. His oldest crop are five-year-olds and he is currently top of the Australian sires table.
“He is now the leading sire, and he is going to be an important stallion, and with her line, the Kingman line, will be really good and, hopefully, with that pedigree we can breed a stallion,” Freyer said.
Arrowfield and Hermitage Thoroughbreds race the Chris Waller-trained Autumn Glow, who made it eight wins from eight starts when taking out the $10 million Golden Eagle on November 1.
She will become the jewel in the Arrowfield broodmare band crown once her racing career is over and Freyer revealed that fillies out of Chere Darmoiselle could also be retained.
“We were stretched to (buy Chere Darmoiselle), we were hoping to buy her a fraction less than that, but the ones with those sort of pedigrees you really have to stretch for and I am pleased that we did,” said Freyer.
“We are all about getting these mares with these families and we will probably keep all the daughters going forward.”
Cambridge Stud also featured on the buyers’ sheet on day two, going to 35,000 guineas for Sea The Stars mare Brightly, the only mare offered in foal to Starman to southern hemisphere time.
Starman, a Group 1-winning sprinter by Dutch Art, is Britain and Ireland’s leading first season sire this year, has five first crop two-year-old stakes winners including Group 1 Prix Morny scorer Venetian Sun.
Trainer Jessica Harrington, who prepared Group 1 winner Lucky Vega for Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng, was delighted to sell Barnavara for such a huge price on behalf of Alpha Racing.
Barnavara won four stakes races in five starts this year as a three-year-old including her last-start Group 1 Prix de I’Opera victory at Longchamp in October.
“We thought she was only just growing into herself. She went on improving all year, she is a very big filly, but she is amazing,” Harrington said.
“She actually won her maiden in May (of her two-year-old season), then we ran her in Listed and Group races and she was getting placed and she was not finishing out her races, and I think she was going through a little bit of a weak stage.
“Her first run this year was not good, but then it just all came together and from then it has been brilliant.”
Magnier said Porta Fortuna, a Caravaggio mare who was trained by Donnacha O’Brien, could be covered by the influential Australian-bred stallion Starspangledbanner.
“Donnacha has done an incredible job with her,” Magnier said. “She is a very good filly, she is very talented. She is a lovely filly, loads of quality and hopefully she can breed one as good as her.”
After two days of trade, 79.55 million guineas have changed hands at an average of 184,590 guineas.
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