Volkano to lead-up Too Darn Hot trio in final juvenile stakes race of the season
Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) has become an unqualified siring sensation, following up his stellar debut season with an ultra successful second term which underpins his service fee leap to $275,000 (inc GST) on his return to the shuttle this spring.
But though we’re amongst the last flickering embers of the season, Too Darn Hot is not done yet, with a three-pronged assault on the final two-year-old black type race of the season in Saturday’s South Australian Sires’ Produce Stakes (G3, 1400m).
Among the event’s ten runners, Too Darn Hot’s three are in single–figure odds, headed by the possible favourite Volkano, a 4.5–length debut winner at his home track of Ballarat for trainers Tony and Calvin McEvoy, and a gelding who’s come a long way from some very concerning beginnings.
Also representing Too Darn Hot is Dan Clarken and Oopy MacGillivray’s Bootlegger, another last–start victor having scored at start two in metro grade at Gawler, along with Too Much Too Soon, one of six fillies in the race and who’s been placed in her past two starts at Geelong and Sandown for Mornington trainer Shane Nichols.
That Too Darn Hot has such a powerful presence in Australia’s second-last Group race of the season speaks volumes for the rare impact the Darley and Andrew Lloyd Webber–owned stallion has enjoyed in this country.
Having streaked away with Australia’s first season sires’ laurel last term, the rising ten-year-old has been just as dominant in taking a lock on the sophomore title in 2024-25, with quadruple Group 1 winner Broadsiding his star performer in both years, en route to his own place in Darley’s stallion barn this spring, at $66,000 (inc GST).
Too Darn Hot sits 17th on Australia’s general sires’ table. That alone is a mighty achievement in only his second season and with just 93 runners, while the 16 above him average 270.
But on stakes winners, his performance is far more remarkable.
The son of the great Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) has ten of those, putting him equal–fifth in the nation alongside Dundeel (High Chaparral), but arguably beating him on a countback given he has 15 stakes wins to Dundeel’s 12. In any case, Too Darn Hot’s SA Sires’ contingent give him three chances to go to 11 and outright fifth.
Again, Too Darn Hot has only had 93 runners, for a stakes winners-to-runners ratio of 10.75 per cent.
Above him come: Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), with 18 black type victors from 269 runners at 6.69 per cent; I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) with 16 from 362 at 4.41 per cent; Zoustar (Northern Meteor) with 15 from 367 at 4.08 per cent; and Written Tycoon (Iglesia) with 14 from 331 at 4.22 per cent. Dundeel has ten from 333 at 3.00 per cent.
With his third crop of 88 live foals to hit the tracks in the spring – following 85 and 97 in his first two seasons – the future looks radiant for Too Darn Hot, even given the dip he’ll encounter through being considered too good to shuttle last season.
His impact is reflected in the fact his average yearling price in Australia has gone from $183,000 on debut, to $213,000 in year two, to $314,000 this year after his first completed season of runners.
Saturday brings his chance for his eighth Group winner of the season, with bookmakers on Wednesday having Volkano a $3.80 second favourite – behind Team Hayes’s Ethereum Girl (Maurice) at $3.30 – with Bootlegger at $6.50 and Too Much Too Soon $9.50.
With a 5m x 4f duplication of the great Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) – his third damsire – Volkano in particular shapes as a horse who’ll push his sire’s barrow long into the future, which counts as a far cry from some intriguing early months on the track.
It says much about his physical nature that McEvoy Mitchell Racing – along with Belmont Bloodstock and syndicators MyRacehorse – went well above Too Darn Hot’s second year average to secure Volkano for $425,000 at Magic Millions Gold Coast.
He’s the first foal out of Volks Lightning (Volksraad) who won a Group 3 and Listed in New Zealand as well as running third in Ellerslie’s Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), and whose sire has finished top ten in that country’s broodmare sires’ charts for the past four seasons.
“He was just the best physical – he was my top pick of the whole sale,” Tony McEvoy said of Volkano. “He was deep and strong, had great bone, a good head on him, and he really moved very well.
“We paid a good bit for him. We liked the sire, although this was probably a bit before Too Darn Hot was Too Darn Hot. He’s turned out to be a great stallion.”
The McEvoys have bought well in the Too Darn Hot shop. In his first Australian sale, they sniffed out a daughter of his late in the piece, and with Belmont made her the third-highest priced lot of Book 2, paying $220,000. She’s turned out to be Arabian Summer, winner of five from 11, including a Caulfield Group 3, and $1.4 million so far.
“I wish I had more Too Darn Hots in the stable,” Tony McEvoy told ANZ News. “I’ve got Volkano, Arabian Summer and two others.”
He’s about to receive another, with a Too Darn Hot yearling filly among a group of some 15 horses to be sent to the McEvoys as one of the stables chosen by Darley/Godolphin under their new public training model.
“It’s very exciting. We’re so chuffed to be chosen, and it’ll be a privilege to have those colours in our stable,” said McEvoy, equally impressed by the undoubted star sire of Sheikh Mohammed’s Australian barn.
“Too Darn Hot is doing a great job as a stallion. There can’t have been many shuttlers who’ve made as big an impression as him. His stock are just proper horses. Temperament wise, willingness wise, I haven’t heard a bad word said about any of them.”
That said, Volkano did start out on a path a little commensurate with his name.
“He’s been a bit frustrating,” McEvoy said. “When I bought him at the sales, I thought he’d be our first two-year-old runner, looking at him as a physical. But he’s been a slow learner.”
His first jump out at Ballarat last September left some awkward silences, as Volkano came in a couple of hundred metres behind the leaders.
“He jumped out and went about a furlong and then pulled himself up,” McEvoy said. “Luke Currie rode him and thought he might have been sore, and so eased him down. But there was nothing wrong with the horse, physically at least.”
A second jump-out was marginally better, a third of four at Bendigo, before Volkano again tailed off when last of seven at Geelong.
“I was really worried about his attitude,” McEvoy said. “He was being a bit resentful, and we thought, ‘This is a battle we’re going to lose’.
“At that point, they can become the worst student. Some just don’t like pressure, and the more pressure you put on them, they can go the other way. And if they go over the line, you can’t get them back.
“So we acted quickly. We stopped and gelded him, and thankfully we had the support of the ownership group. It’s been the making of him. He’s come back a different horse.”
Volkano returned with three jump-outs – a quiet run at Ararat, a win at Caulfield Heath, and a second on the Ballarat synthetic.
With a refreshed attitude – plus blinkers, a tongue–tie and a cross-over noseband to make sure – he returned to the Ballarat synthetic for his debut in a 1200-metre maiden on July 8, and led throughout to win by panels of fencing over six rivals.
“It was only a maiden, but he dominated the race,” McEvoy said.
“The thing that impressed me was he was out there on his own, but he just kept going through the line. They can often get out in front like that and start wondering where the herd are.
“It’s brought him on. He’s a gross horse – he’s a deep strong powerful bloke who looks like a three-year-old – but he looks better for it.”
Now Volkano faces the rise from maiden grade to Group 3. It’s a leap, but McEvoy knows what it takes to win the SA Sires’, having taken it five times before.
Furthermore, only three rivals have any stakes form worth mentioning, with Ethereum Girl, Kazaru (Embellish) and Mostly For Show (Vadamos) running second, third and fourth in the Oaklands Plate (Listed, 1400m) at Morphettville Parks in their one try at black type.
“He’s going from a maiden to Group 3 – not many can achieve that,” said McEvoy.
“But we galloped him the other day with an older horse who’s in form, and he matched it with him really well.
“Maiden grade can be a bit flattering, but this race is a nice opportunity for him. I think he’s a genuine top–three chance.”