Too Darn Hot return on cards as $2.2m colt sets new southern hemisphere benchmark

Too Darn Hot will return for southern hemisphere stallion duties later this year, a welcome revelation for Australasia’s commercial breeders on the same day the superstar sire achieved a new sales ring milestone.

Lord and Lady Lloyd Webber’s racing and bloodstock manager Simon Marsh’s declaration about Too Darn Hot’s future came at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale moments after Watership Down Stud bought a colt by the stallion for $2.2 million on Monday.

“As long as he’s healthy and happy and he gets through his season in the northern hemisphere fine, then the intention is obviously to bring him back,” Marsh said of Too Darn Hot, who stayed in the UK in 2024 before returning to Darley’s Kelvinside base last year. 

“He covered the most incredible book of mares last year, so we’re very happy with him and we’ll restrict him in numbers like we did last year. 

“He covered 108 mares here last year, and we’ll restrict him to the same kind of numbers this year.”

The pinhooked Too Darn Hot colt, who was a $775,000 weanling purchase by Stefan Pardi’s Equine Growth Fund, is a brother to stakes-winning filly Too Darn Lizzie and was touted as a potential sales-topper leading up to the Easter auction.

While he did not gain that honour, with an Extreme Choice colt selling for $3 million on Sunday, he did better his sire’s own Australasian mark.

His previous highest-priced southern hemisphere-sold yearling was a $1.9 million second crop colt sold at Magic Millions in 2024.

His elder sibling Too Darn Lizzie, who was trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, was also raced by the Lloyd Webbers to win at Group 2 level as a three-year-old before being on-sold at last year’s Chairman’s Sale to Yulong for $2.4 million.

Waterhouse and Bott will also train the son of Too Darn Hot who was co-signed for at the Easter sale by the Lord and Lady Madeline Lloyd Webber’s UK-based Watership Down Stud, Irish agent Johnny McKeever and trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.

McKeever, who also bought Too Darn Lizzie as a yearling on the Gold Coast, was glad Marsh gave him the go-ahead to keep bidding.

“I just didn’t want to lose him because our whole week centred around him,” McKeever said. “But when we bought Too Darn Lizzie we had one more bid, and I was on my own that day, I didn’t have Simon to even ask. 

“So, in that respect maybe it’s a good omen that the market pushed us to make it a little uncomfortable.” 

Marsh was in agreement with McKeever that the colt, the fourth foal of Group 2-winning and Blue Diamond-placed filly Enbihaar, was a stand out.

“To be honest with you, the first time I saw him I said to Johnny that we’re going to have to have this horse because he’s just so exceptional,” he said. 

“We were very very lucky with Too Darn Lizzie, she’s a beautiful horse, and he may be a little bit bigger than Too Darn Lizzie. 

“He’s got so much strength and power, he looks like he could run through a wall. Hopefully now we can be lucky with him and he’ll go on and do great things for us on the track.”

The Lloyd Webbers also raced Too Darn Hot before selling equity in the stallion to Darley, with the stallion making an immediate impression in both hemispheres as the sire of 33 stakes winners globally and 15 in Australia. 

Group 1-winning colts Broadsiding and this year’s Oakleigh Plate-winning sprinter Tropicus are by Too Darn Hot who stood for a fee of $275,000 (inc GST) last year.

Marsh said: “The stallion himself is just doing so well down here and he had another Group 1 winner in Meydan on World Cup night (with Native Approach last Saturday), so he’s going from strength to strength both down here and in the northern hemisphere. 

“We’re very very lucky to have him and really appreciative of all the breeders who have bred to him down here, so it’s good to be able to put something back (by buying a colt by him).”

When the hammer came down, Lime Country’s Jo Griffin, whose Hunter Valley operation sold the $3 million Extreme Choice colt on Sunday, ruefully recalled her pinhooking syndicate underbidding the Too Darn Hot colt at last year’s Inglis Australian Weanling Sale.

Pardi’s Equine Growth Fund also turned a massive profit in partnership with Grenville Stud’s Graeme and Bart McCulloch, with the partners selling another colt by Too Darn Hot for $1.3 million later in the session. They bought the colt for $335,000 at last year’s Inglis Great Southern Sale in Melbourne.

In another huge pinhooking result at the Easter sale, New Zealanders Mark and Shelley Treweek’s Lyndhurst Farm sold an Anamoe colt for $850,000 to Ron and Judi Wanless. 

The Treweeks bought the colt for $180,000 at last May’s Magic Millions Weanling Sale on the Gold Coast.