Connections hot on Sweltering’s Queensland Oaks chance
Sweltering (Too Darn Hot) came within 1.3 lengths of joining the hall of infamy as one of the longest-priced winners of a Group 1 when she finished second in the Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) last start at $201.
And she’ll be at it again this Saturday – though not quite at those odds – when she contests the Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m) at Eagle Farm, with her co-trainer Natalie Young confident she boost her value for her new owners by carrying their familiar colours with distinction.
It’s not often you see Yulong buying 200-1 shots, but that’s what happened at the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale last Tuesday week, when Sweltering joined Zhang Yuesheng’s green and white army for $600,000, sold from the Newgate consignment.
The Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young stable had been mulling a tilt at the Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m), scheduled for last Saturday, with Sweltering before the sale plan evolved. With acceptances taken a few hours before she was due to enter the ring – amid all the doubts that posed for her immediate future – and with the auction process creating a couple of busy days for the filly, it was decided to instead target the Oaks.
Almost teasingly, the weather then intervened, pushing the Derby back to this Saturday in any case. But Busuttin and Young are happy both with their choice of targets, and of course with the fact Yulong have left the dark brown filly in their care.
Now the stable is again warm on her chances – at a more respectable quote of around $34 this time – though new rider Rachel King will have to overcome a wide gate, with Sweltering pulling barrier 21, though with four emergencies drawn inside her in the 18-horse capacity field.
“She galloped super on Tuesday morning,” Young said of Sweltering, who’s been stabled at the Gold Coast for three weeks. “She really ran through the line and didn’t want to pull up, so I thought that was a really good sign. It was also a lot like her work on the Tuesday before the Australasian Oaks, so that’s another good sign.
“She’s got a great rider in Rachel King. She’s going to have her work cut out from the gate, but maybe by that time of the day they’ll be coming wide. They do tend to get off the rail anyway at Eagle Farm.
“We will need a bit of luck from that draw, but I can’t fault her. She’ll obviously be out the back door and we’ll ride for a little bit of luck, but she should storm home late.”
Sweltering will be having her first start since the Australasian Oaks six weeks ago. Young said she was content with that plan, modelled on the stable’s previous Adelaide-to-Brisbane carnival hoppers, saying she was happy to have missed the traditional lead-up of the ANZ Bloodstock News The Roses (Gr 2, 2000m) two weeks ago.
In contrast, two key market fancies for this Saturday in Benagil (Manhattan Rain) and Movin Out (Staphanos) – who finished first and fifth respectively in the Australasian Oaks, contested The Roses, running tenth and third.
“We thought we’d bypass The Roses and go straight into the Oaks nice and fresh,” Young said. “She’s got a good turn of foot, as she showed in the Australasian Oaks, so we wanted to keep that freshness in her legs.
“She’s really settled in up there awesome. It’s been good for her to get some sun on her back, and she’s thrived with a little bit of travel. It’s a long trip from Adelaide to Brisbane, so it’s good to have that bit of time between runs to get over it.”
Bred by Qatar Bloodstock and offered at the 2023 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale by Widden Stud, Sweltering was bought by her trainers for just $90,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale of 2023.
She was the fifth foal of winning mare Daring (Encosta De Lago), from the same family as stakes victors including Shania Dane (Danehill) and Group 1 winner Summer Passage (Snitzel).
Expat Kiwis Bussutin and Young had noted her half-sister Pacific Dragon (Charm Spirit) had won a Listed in New Zealand, while they were also keen to tap into the first crop of Too Darn Hot.
“She was a nice, athletic filly. She was a little bit high in the hind but you could see she was going to come up nicely in the front,” Young said.
“She had a good frame on her and the Too Darn Hots were nice horses in general and they were selling quite well at the time, and to get her for that price, she really ticked all our boxes as a staying filly going forward.
“So $90,000 was pretty good, especially considering she’s now won a bit of prize-money [$207,000], and been sold for $600,000.”
Sweltering did take longer than expected to come to hand. She had her first jump-out as a January two-year-old – then had eight more jump-outs, spread over three preparations, before her first start.
“We wanted to go to the races and win, because we hadn’t sold her yet, but she just wasn’t quite ready,” Young said.
“She took a bit longer to level up, so we didn’t want to get her to the races while she hadn’t quite levelled up and matured as much as we’d like.
“So we thought we’d give her a bit of time, and give her those three preps, and it’s worked in the long-run.”
It worked, although Sweltering remains a maiden after seven starts, but with that massive run in the Australasian Oaks her fifth second placing.
Had she not run into Benagil that day, Sweltering would have gone into the Group 1 bolters’ annals alongside the likes of 1986’s $251 Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Abaridy (Arbogast) and the grandaddy of them all, Lunar Fox (Foxwedge), who took the 2021 Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) at $301.
And yet she ran more like an odds-on pop.
Jumping from gate six, she was caught three wide without cover to the 600 metres, then found herself back in the ruck as others took off, including Benagil, gaining a headstart in clean air to her outside.
Easing into clear running at the 220 metres, Sweltering then made enormous ground late to nose out more fancied rival Polymnia (Dundeel) in the battle for second.
Young wasn’t entirely surprised. Following her 0.1–length second the start before in an 1850-metre Terang maiden, Sweltering had headed to Stawell on Easter Sunday at odds-on – before that meeting became the latest victim of the modern scourge of abandonments due to track problems.
“It surprised me that she was such big odds in Adelaide, to be honest,” Young said. “I know she was a maiden in a Group 1, but she had a good jockey booked in Ethan Brown, and the Sunday before she was a $1.60 favourite for her race at Stawell.
“I thought she ran awesome in Adelaide. She was three deep with no cover but finished off great.”
Young expressed her gratitude to Yulong for leaving Sweltering in her stable. Now for some more black type in the Oaks, for which The Roses winner Philia (All Too Hard) heads betting at around $4.70, just ahead of Benagil at $5 and Movin’ Out at $7.
“We’re thankful to Yulong for keeping her with us. Hopefully she can turn in a good race and get a Group 1 placing for them, or even go one better and win it,” Young said.
“She’s 33-to-one and probably rightly so, since she’s a horse who hasn’t won a race yet, but I think she’ll run a really good race.”