Aethelwulf

Image: Aethelwulf, Credit: Bradley Photos

It’s a well known fact in Australia these days that if you have Too Darn Hot in your pedigree, you could be onto a winner.

But would any Too Darn Hot count?

Burgeoning stayer Aethelwulf can be said to be powered by Too Darn Hot. But not as his sire – as his second dam.

This Too Darn Hot isn’t THE Too Darn Hot but she’s hot enough.

The female version kicks off the 32-year-old breeding tale of Aethelwulf, since she was bought by the gelding’s breeder Steve Flynn, back in 1994.

She was a daughter of Noble Bijou (Vaguely Noble), that noted US-bred sire of stayers, a 1980s legend whose story is worth remembering now and again.

He came from nowhere, in that he was unraced, thanks to some hocks that were badly conformed but had no impact on his progeny. He was imported on pedigree alone in a bold but inspired gamble by Brian Anderton of White Robe Lodge, near Dunedin.

Noble Bijou ended up siring 65 stakes winners at a booming 10.85 per cent of runners. His ten Group 1 winners included the outstanding four-timer Alibhai, three-timers Prince Majestic, The Phantom and The Phantom Chance.

The stallion won New Zealand’s champion sire title three years running from 1982-84, and again a decade later in 1992-93 – when he became the first horse to top the country’s general and broodmare sire charts in the same season. He was champion broodmare sire a further four times.

Too Darn Hot wasn’t quite one of his best and didn’t match the racetrack deeds of her male namesake, but she was a stakes winner.

Flynn, a Mudgee lawyer, hobby breeder and a lover of stayers, bought her at the Karaka yearling sale for $40,000, where she was offered by White Robe. It kicked off a long breeding association with another enthusiast from Mudgee, Aleco Vrisakis, who owned Phalaris Stud.

“We were introduced at that sale by a mutual friend Gus Allen, who was a Kiwi but was a dentist in Mudgee,” Flynn tells It’s In The Blood.

“Aleco and I knew there were only two Noble Bijou fillies in the sale, and they’d be the last two by him offered publicly. Aleco bought one and I bought the other.

“Mine was a little bit backward, being a November foal, but I just really liked the Noble Bijou line. I always wanted to breed stayers, and always liked the New Zealand families.

“I’ve always enjoyed watching the staying races more than the sprint races. I appreciate it’s not commercial and there’s not many people doing it, but the two-year-old scene is really for the big studs and the big players.”

Vrisakis’s Noble Bijou filly unfortunately died early in a stable accident, so Flynn invited him to “come in for half of mine”.

That was Too Darn Hot. Flynn hit on the name since her dam was Kiss Me Kate (Balmerino), who was twice Listed placed in New Zealand. Lovers of the genre will know Too Darn Hot is the main song from the musical Kiss Me Kate.

Some 23 years later the Lloyd Webbers, also known for being partial to the odd musical, also quite liked the name for a colt of theirs by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), and thus we now have the shuttling sensation they share with Darley.

“I do get a few comments. I asked Darley whether they’d give us a special deal, since they pinched the name,” Flynn says with a laugh.

A pedigree with “Too Darn Hot” as both sire and second dam would be a beauty, but the Darley sire is way out of Flynn’s budget these days.

The 68-year-old has long been a Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) aficionado, weaned on the likes of Bart Cummings’s 1960s heroes Light Fingers (Le Filou), Galilee (Alcimedes) and Red Handed (Le Filou).

He and Vrisakis put their Too Darn Hot with another Cup tragic from Mudgee, Guy Walter, who – in today’s fun fact – cut his teeth on the great two-miler as the strapper of another Cummings winner Think Big (Sobig), in 1974 and ’75.

Walter trained Too Darn Hot to six wins from 2000-2400m, four of them in Sydney culminating in her black type breakthrough in Randwick’s Tattersall’s Plate (Listed, 2400m) of 1997.

Flynn and Vrisakis then bred from her with some success, with her first five foals including three Sydney winners. Showing the family’s staying prowess, one of them – first foal Hotter Than Hell (Palace Music) – went on to win the Novice Steeplechase (3450m) at the Warrnambool carnival in 2005.

With her sixth foal, Flynn and Vrisakis hit the jackpot. They sent Too Darn Hot to one of the other most illustrious names in Australian shuttling history – Galileo (Sadler’s Wells).

Well, his is an illustrious name, but he didn’t set the world on fire here, especially compared to his northern hemisphere deeds. From six shuttling seasons, Galileo sired 18 stakes winners from 585 live Australian-bred foals.

They included three elite winners, and probably the best was one we didn’t see here in the mare Igugu. She went to South Africa and won four Grade 1s including the Durban July (Gr 1, 2200m) of 2011. Only two Australian-breds have won South Africa’s greatest race, and the second came along only five years later in The Conglomerate (Lonhro).

Back home, one of Galileo’s two elite winners was Linton, who took the 2013 Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m). The other was the result of his mating with Too Darn Hot – Niwot.

Bought by John Hawkes for $200,000 at Inglis Easter 2006, the gelding won four staying stakes races capped by the 2012 Sydney Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) and ran a close eighth in the 2011 Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m).

After him, the breeding record of Too Darn Hot ran a bit cold. Her next three foals – by more shuttlers in Fantastic Light (Rahy) and Oratorio (Danehill) – ended in “aced” – either unraced or unplaced.

As Vrisakis cut back on his breeding activities, Flynn then put her to another northern sire in Authorized (Montjeu) to produce Endaxi, a Kembla Grange winner who managed a city placing.

And Flynn again showed his love of the shuttler by sending Too Darn Hot to Darley’s New Approach (Galileo) for what transpired to be her last mating, trying to replicate the Niwot cross.

It didn’t work as hoped – initially. The resultant 2011 filly Bouboulina raced for Flynn and Vrisakis. Flynn says she showed staying promise, but bowed a tendon and was retired after five unplaced runs.

But now, more than three decades after Flynn bought her mother, Bouboulina is proving her worth as a broodmare, despite some bad luck.

Again, Flynn patronised Coolmore shuttlers – two matings with No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) for a slipped foal and a “born deceased”, and one with Churchill (Galileo) for a filly, Laskarina, who was placed four times at Kembla, amid 12 starts.

But then – for three years running – he hit on Saxon Warrior (Deep Impact).

The first result was Saxon Legend, who won and was city-placed in New Zealand, but died at four.

The third is Lady Of The Seas, a three-year-old filly awaiting her first start for Flynn with Kerry Parker.

But in between those has come Flynn’s most exciting prospect since Niwot in Aethelwulf.

With his fairly unfancy bloodlines, he was sniffed out by trainer Matthew Smith at Inglis’s HTBA sale of 2024, bought for $26,000 from the draft of Mudgee farm Gooree Park.

And not to be mean spirited, but a good bit of sniffing out has been required in regard to the progeny of Saxon Warrior.

The Japanese-bred, Irish-raced entire shuttled to Coolmore for four seasons and wasn’t asked back after 2022. He finally had a stakes winner in 2024, and only just, with Archaic Smile winning a New Zealand Listed.

And then, from beyond nowhere, came Sheza Alibi, proving every sire can leave a good one in her extraordinary dual Group 1-winning burst last season.

Aethelwulf – well named after a ninth century West Saxon king – now has the chance to become Saxon Warrior’s second star.

He’s won four from six, including the last three at short odds-on – by 6.5 lengths at Kembla Grange over 1600 metres; by 4.9 lengths at Canterbury over 1900 metres; and last Saturday at Rosehill by 2.15 lengths.

The four-year-old is $5 favourite for The Metropolitan (Gr 2, 2400m), and is at $51 on the off chance he goes all the way to the Melbourne Cup, where he’d have the chance to prove his staying blood once more.

“It’s great to see him doing so well. Matt’s doing a great job with him, and the owners are getting a good ride,” says Flynn, noting his $26,000 purchase price now seems a bargain, albeit more than double the $10,000 owner Fred Noffke paid for Sheza Warrior.

“We sold Saxon Legend at the Magic Millions National sale, and Aethelwulf at HTBA. You always like to get them in better sales, but you couldn’t really, with what Bouboulina and Saxon Warrior had done.”

Once you get over the shock of seeing Too Darn Hot as second dam, the most arresting feature of Aethelwulf’s pedigree is his 3f x 3m duplication of Galileo, since he’s the damsire of Saxon Warrior (and so many other great horses these days). Thus Galileo is a huge contributor of Aethelwulf’s blood – at 25 per cent – which you can only think can’t be a bad thing.

Flynn, who dabbles with three mares, admits his patronage of shuttle sires has been more about money than any obsession with their northern hemisphere deeds.

But having Saxon Warrior cover Bouboulina would again mix Galileo with Too Darn Hot, which worked so well with Niwot.

Moreover, putting Bouboulina to Saxon Warrior, and to Churchill before him, was all about creating that doubling of Galileo.

“Inbreeding intensely to Galileo was a punt. It hasn’t seemed to have worked with his sire Sadler’s Wells, but it does seem to be working with Galileo,” he says. “Plus in our case it was gender-balanced.”

Flynn says it’s heartening to see one of Coolmore sire St Mark’s Basilica’s (Siyouni) two Group 1 winners, Thesecretadversary, has an identical 3f x 3m cross of Galileo.

But he says his chances of replicating it again with Bouboulina are limited. St Mark’s Basilica, The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice), Henry Longfellow (Dubawi), Ghaiyyath (Dubawi) and Auguste Rodin (Deep Impact) are all out of Galileo mares, but are beyond Flynn’s reach due to geography or price.

To mix things up, Flynn sent Bouboulina to a sprinter in 2024 in Newgate Farm’s Tiger Of Malay (Extreme Choice), and now has a yearling filly.

The mare wasn’t covered last year, but Flynn has in mind Arrowfield’s Hitotsu (Maurice) this spring. Bouboulina had a “very nice” colt by Hitotsu in 2024, but more of that wretched luck emerged when he broke a leg as a yearling.

Elsewhere in Aethelwulf’s pedigree, Hail To Reason (Turn-To) represents the only other piece of inbreeding at 5m x 5f, kicking off Saxon Warrior’s sireline, and as the damsire of Noble Bijou.

Northern Dancer (Nearctic) runs second to Galileo with 10.16 per cent of the blood, thanks to a 6m, 5m, 6m 7f x 5m appearance.

But remarkably close is the great Nearco (Pharos), who’s at 7m x 7m, 6f, amid 12 spots overall (6.25 per cent).

You don’t see the great Italian 1935 throw in column six in many pedigrees these days, but he runs into Bouboulina’s female half thanks to three bits of mature-aged parenting. He was 21 when he sired Noble Lassie, the dam of Noble Bijou’s sire. Noble Bijou was 21 when he sired Too Darn Hot, and she was 19 when she had Bouboulina.

Hyperion (Gainsbrough) is the most prevalent sire with 17 mentions, while Natalma (Native Dancer) takes the mare’s honours with 12.