Too Darn Hot’s Tropicus snares maiden Group 1
Tropicus (Too Darn Hot) became the fifth elite winner worldwide for his sensational sire and made a case for his own career at stud with a powerful first-up victory in Saturday’s Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) at Caulfield.
Ridden for the first time by Craig Williams, and providing the veteran jockey’s first win in the race, Kia Ora Stud’s four-year-old homebred began well from gate nine of 13 and found a smooth running line, three wide with cover.
Carrying half a kilogram under topweight under the handicap conditions at 58.5kg, Tropicus cruised up to the leaders before the home turn before being forced into a battle with Gallant Son (Written Tycoon) to his inside for the first half of the straight. Once that was won, however, he kicked well clear inside the 200 metres to put the race to bed.
A slightly easy $7.50 second favourite, Tropicus had 1.25 lengths to spare on the line from $20 shot and topweight Hedged (Capitalist), with Gallant Son holding onto third at $8.50, and $2.60 favourite Point Barrow (Blue Point) running fifth.
It was Tropicus’s fourth win – all of them at Caulfield – in 12 starts, and pushed his earnings into seven figures.
Something of a slow burner, he won a two-year-old handicap on debut in May of his first season, but struggled slightly through a three-year-old spring highlighted by a third in Rosehill’s San Domenico Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m).
However, he scored his stakes breakthrough on this day last year in the Zeditave Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) and added another black-type win in last August’s The Heath (Gr 3, 1100m), before a length second to star sprinter Giga Kick (Scissor Kick) in the Schillaci Stakes (Gr 2, 1100m), also at Caulfield.
Co-trainer Sam Freedman said now that Tropicus had broken through at the top tier, he could be set to ascend to another level and prove himself the latest star son of Darley’s in-demand shuttler Too Darn Hot (Dubawi).
Too Darn Hot’s runaway success in both hemispheres might yet convince Darley to leave him in Britain this year while it stands his other Australian Group 1 winner Broadsiding at its Kelvinside farm.
Kia Ora may also be licking their lips over the prospect of standing Tropicus, now he has a Group 1 to his name to confirm the high rating his trainers have always had of the stallion.
“He’s a proper horse, he deserves that,” Sam Freedman, celebrating his 30th birthday, said of the win.
“As a three-year-old he raced against some of the best, Broadsiding and a few really proper colts. He’s got better as an entire and he’s one of those horses that just trains on and on and on.
“We’ve seen him get better this prep. You wouldn’t rule out him going to another level again.”
Continuing a hot run of success on the track for Kia Ora horses in the past two years, Tropicus may now be set for the William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), to be held at Caulfield on March 21 while its usual home Moonee Valley is being remodelled.
“I don’t think he’s a straight horse, to be honest,” said Freedman, eschewing the possibility of a start in Flemington’s Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) on March 7.
“He’s generally good around a bend, he’s so good here at Caulfield.
“I’d say we may end up in a William Reid, something like that.
“We’ll chat to the team at Kia Ora, they’ve been great supporters of ours for such a long time … they’re leading an amazing group of horses.”
He added: “This horse was largely unwanted as a yearling. Brett Cavanough did a lot of his early work as a yearling and a two-year-old. He’s ultra tough.
“He puts himself up there, pins his ears back and has a crack. They don’t always do that as entires, as you know, but he’s one horse he’s got better – two, three, four, he just continues to improve.
“He carried a big weight today. Next in store would probably be a weight-for-age race. I don’t think we’d see him in a Newmarket, probably go to a William Reid – he’s so good at Caulfield and so good fresh.”
Williams, who won another of Caulfield’s three elite features on Saturday aboard Pericles (Street Boss) in the Futurity Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) said he was ultra impressed with his first sit on Tropicus.
“Beginners’ luck maybe, first time on him, but he seemed pretty good to ride,” said Williams, celebrating his lucky 88th Group 1 success in the week of Chinese New Year.
“He’s pretty cruisy. I can see why Mark Zara and Damian Lane really enjoyed riding him in their time, and he gave me a lovely ride today, so the race worked out really well for me.”
Bred by Kia Ora and associates, Tropicus is the third of seven foals – and the second and best winner from two to race – for the mare Extensible (Exceed And Excel), a Sydney city winner of four races who was also placed at Group 3 level.
Her filly by Justify (Scat Daddy) will be offered by Tyreel Stud at this year’s Inglis Easter sale. She is catalogued as Lot 301.
Extensible now has a filly foal by Home Affairs (I Am Invincible), and was covered by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) last spring.
Too Darn Hot, who covered 110 mares at Darley Kelvinside last year at a fee of $275,000 (inc GST), has 14 stakes winners in Australia from 141 runners at 9.93 per cent, and 91 winners at 64.54 per cent.
Tropicus joins Broadsiding as Too Darn Hot’s Australian elite winners, alongside his three in the northern hemisphere in Fallen Angel, Hotazhell and Tornado Alert.