If there is one thing we have learned about the progeny of Too Darn Hot (GB) this season it is that they train on and whatever his progeny show at two they invariably improve on at three so with that thinking in mind we’ve gone looking for a few spring contenders starting with the obvious.
The Kris Lees trained colt Rivellino was the standout performer for his sire in Australia this season out of his second crop of foals. He won the $2million Inglis Millennium and Group II ATC Skyline Stakes before finishing fourth and fifth respectively in the Golden Slipper and Sires’ Produce Stakes.
Rivellino was given his first quiet trial back at Gosford on Wednesday and was not asked for a lot by James McDonald in an 800m trial that also featured the Ciaron Maher trained Group I winners Gringotts and Another Wil.
Rivellino was not the only Too Darn Hot two year-old in action at the trials trained by Kris Lees and ridden by James McDonald as they also combined to win a heat with untapped filly Cantiamo.
It was the second trial back for Cantiamo who had one start last December finishing fifth to Within the Law in the $500,000 Inglis Nursery.
She looked pretty good in this trial settling back and running home hard under a hold to win by a length and a half.
Pedigree watchers will find her an interesting one as her dam Valencay is a half-sister to stakes-winner Lucida from brilliantly fast Zabeel Group II winner Peruzzi, a daughter of Group I winning blue hen Diamond Lover.
It is of course the Eight Carat (GB) family and this branch of it is renowned for G1 winners such as Tristalove, Don Eduardo, Viscount, De Beers and it produced a new G1 winner this season in VRC Australian Guineas winner Feroce.
The good fillies in this family often have a distinctive look to them, dark in colour, very elegant and with big dark eyes… A $220,000 Inglis Classic yearling purchase, Cantiamo has the look and whether she has the ability too is something we will find out soon enough.
Too Darn Hot has also had a couple of Group placed maidens this season in Sword of Legacy and Hot Sea, plus 11 other winners that hold the promise of more to come including progressive filly Tomato Toastie.
Too Darn Hot was Champion First Season Sire and will be Champion Second Season Sire and is back at Darley this spring at a fee of $275,000 after remaining in the UK last year.
