Widden targets Australian breeders with new acquisition Hotazhell

Widden Stud has acquired a 50 per cent interest in triple Group 1 winner Hotazhell in partnership with France’s Haras d’Etreham, adding a Group 1-winning son of Too Darn Hot with international form to its stallion portfolio.

The Jessica Harrington-trained four-year-old will have his final start at British Champions Day at Ascot before beginning his stallion career at Haras d’Etreham in 2027.

Widden will offer a limited number of shares to Australian clients, although it has not announced pricing or plans for an Australian presence as a shuttle stallion.

“Being able to purchase 50 per cent of a horse with such international appeal is very rare for Australian farms,” Widden’s Antony Thompson said.

“We are excited to be able to offer a limited number of shares to our Australian clients that will lay the foundation for his success both here and in France.”

The deal followed Hotazhell’s win on Saturday in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown, where he defeated Wimbledon Hawkeye.

“We are delighted to have been able to acquire Hotazhell jointly with Nicolas de Chambure’s Haras d’Etreham,” Thompson said.

“He is a horse we have followed closely and genuinely believe is ideally suited to the Australian market.”

Hotazhell has won Group 1 races in Great Britain, Germany and Ireland. His first came to prominence in the 2024 Futurity Stakes, where he defeated Delacroix, now a stallion at Coolmore Australia, by a nose.

It was one of three Group wins Hotazhell recorded during his juvenile season.

He was placed in the Irish 2000 Guineas last year before scoring a narrow victory in this year’s Group 1 Bayerisches Zuchtrennen in Munich, where Wimbledon Hawkeye was third.

The pair met again at Leopardstown, where jockey Shane Foley drove Hotazhell to another close win.

“He knows where the winning post is and he put his head down on the line,” Harrington said after the Irish Champion Stakes.

Hotazhell has raced in four countries since being sold at a breeze-up sale as a two-year-old. Harrington said he had remained sound and consistent through those campaigns.

Hotazhell is out of a Danehill Dancer mare from the family of champion racemare Alexander Goldrun. He will become the first son of Too Darn Hot to stand in Europe.

Too Darn Hot has produced 36 stakes winners, including eight Group 1 winners, from his early crops in both hemispheres.

His Australian runners are led by four-time Group 1 winner Broadsiding and Oakleigh Plate winner Tropicus, both at stud in Australia.

The Darley stallion returned to Kelvinside for the 2026 season at an unchanged fee of $275,000 including GST, giving Hotazhell a clear connection to Australian breeders as one of his sire’s highest-performing sons.

Thompson compared the Irish Champion Stakes with the Cox Plate and said Hotazhell’s performance, pedigree and physique supported Widden’s investment.

“When you combine that level of performance with his pedigree and physical attributes, we feel he has all the qualities to become a significant stallion in Australia,” he said.

“It is also a great pleasure to be partners with a farm of Haras d’Etreham’s standing.

“Like Widden, they are a generational family operation with an incredible history in French breeding, and they share similar values to our own.”

Haras d’Etreham will launch Hotazhell’s stud career during the 2027 northern hemisphere season.

The French operation previously launched Wootton Bassett before his sale to Coolmore and has raised Group 1 winners including Urban Sea, Almanzor, King’s Best and Uni.

“We are absolutely delighted at the prospect of welcoming a horse of Hotazhell’s calibre to Etreham for the 2027 season,” Nicolas de Chambure said.

“His pedigree and racing record are of the very highest standard, and his conformation is impeccable.”