Tropicus
Surging Kia Ora Stud has its latest stallion-in-waiting after four-year-old Tropicus (Too Darn Hot) resumed with an affirming elite-level victory in Saturday’s Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) – and he has the farm’s fingerprints all over him.
The Hunter Valley stud, flying high with their young stallion Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) currently topping Australia’s second season sires’ table, not only bred Tropicus – in tandem with long-term Queensland-based associates Don and Judy Kelly – but his dam Extensible (Exceed And Excel) as well.
And thanks in part to Tropicus, amongst Too Darn Hot’s (Dubawi) dizzying successes, Extensible’s retired sire Exceed And Excel (Danehill) is the number one nick for his fellow Darley stallion.
Too Darn Hot over Exceed And Excel has had 11 winners from 15 starters, including three at black type level, for a 20 per cent stakes winners to runners ratio, the best of any cross for Too Darn Hot with more than seven runners.
Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott’s Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) winner Shiki is the other Australian black type winner from the cross, while the third comes in Britain thanks to Exceed And Excel’s shuttle years in Fitzella, winner of the Princess Margaret Stakes (Gr 3, 6f) at Ascot last July.
Extensible made the top 17 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in 2013 when she sold for $220,000, with the Kellys later taking up the majority shareholding and Kia Ora keeping a slice.
She became a more than handy racehorse for Peter and Paul Snowden, not missing a place in her first nine runs, with her four wins including three Sydney city victories.
The chestnut graduated to black type for start number ten in the spring of 2016, and after a fourth in Randwick’s Angst Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) she went to Melbourne for the first time and earned a pedigree upgrade with a third in Sandown’s Summoned Stakes (Gr 3, 1500m).
Extensible was, however, possibly a length short of the top echelon, never winning again after those first nine starts and not adding to her one black type placing.
But she’s now earned breeding star status with her Group 1-winning son – which is only fitting for a mare from an esteemed Aga Khan-bred line.
Kia Ora’s bloodstock and breeding manager Shane Wright says the Anthony and Sam Freedman–trained Tropicus will continue to the William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at Caulfield on March 21, with a decision to be made later as to whether he goes to stud this spring or continues racing.
“He’s still got a racing program ahead of him and there’ll be lots of chats to be had, but we see him as a stallion in the future,” he says.
“We’ll be talking to the Freedman camp. He looks likely to go to the William Reid next, and a decision will be made after then what we do.
“But whenever it happens, we’re very proud to have a stallion bred on the farm, out of a Kia Ora-bred mare, going to our stud in the future.”
Tropicus’s pedigree has a heavy foreign flavour, with Extensible and Exceed And Excel its only members with the AUS suffix.
Extensible – who has a Justify (Scat Daddy) filly going to Inglis Easter in Tyreel Stud’s draft – hails from a deep European female line, with her first six dams bred by the Aga Khan, back to 1947 drop But Beautiful (Tehran), a three-time stakes winner.
Tropicus’s sixth and fifth dams But Lovely (Sayajirao) and Embellie (Venture) were stakes winners in France. Third dam Kerita (Formidable) won a Group 3 and a Listed in England and threw the Group 3 winner Keraka (Storm Bird), who in turn left an Irish Listed winner.
Second dam Kerimba (Sinndar) is the taproot of the family, an unraced Irish-bred who also threw Extensible’s sister Cathay Lady, who won Gosford’s Belle of the Turf Stakes (1600m) in 2013 for John Sargent.
“Extensible is from a very good European family, but she was also your typical Exceed And Excel – a normal sized, strong and forward sort of mare,” Wright says.
“We thought Too Darn Hot would be a good mating for her. He hadn’t had any runners yet, but we thought he was a good bet. Dubawi blood has been proven over the years, and we thought he was definitely worth sending a nice mare to, which we’ve done just about every year since.
“When you bring those international stallions here, you’ve got to give them the best of the Australian mares to make them suit the Australian way.
“You’re trying to race in Australia, so you want to produce an Australian product with the best influences from Europe or America as you can I suppose.”
Kia Ora have been rewarded for that ‘bet’ in spades, like so many who patronised Too Darn Hot early in his shuttle career. The winner of three European Group 1s from 1400 metres to 1600 metres, Too Darn Hot was Australia’s champion first and second season sire, and he’s now tracking at a 9.9 per cent stakes winners to runners ratio in Australia, with 14 from 141.
Blending his mostly European pedigree with Extensible’s, which is slightly more American than European, brought a couple of tasty repetitions.
Irish–bred stallion Top Ville (High Top) is present at 4f x 6f, with two daughters being a handy way to go since he’s renowned as a broodmare sire. He’s the sire of one of the very best of those in Darara, who’s Too Darn Hot’s second dam.
Also bred by the Aga Khan, she left no fewer than four Group 1 winners on the flat, and another one over the jumps.
One of her flat brigade was Darazari (Sadler’s Wells), who was a relatively early import from France to Australia, and won Rosehill’s Ranvet Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) in 1999 for Bruce Wallace and Glen Boss, beating Tie The Knot (Nassipour).
Another was Dar Re Mi (Singspiel), winner of a Group 1 in each of Ireland, England and Dubai, and who became the dam of Too Darn Hot.
And so Top Ville is Too Darn Hot’s second damsire, while he appears in Tropicus’s bottom half as the second damsire of Sinndar, Tropicus’s second damsire.
Another interesting one, still with Aga Khan stock, is Venture (Relic), a 1957 drop. The winner of four modern day Group 1s, and a sire in France in the 1960s and Japan in the 1970s, Venture kicks off both female lines of Tropicus’s pedigree, at 6f x 6f.
The great Mill Reef (Never Bend) comes in at 6m x 6m, although a bit buried, as the third sire of Dubawi’s dam, and the second sire of Sinndar’s.
Tropicus would also appear to benefit from repetitions of key mares deep in his pedigree.
Natalma (Native Dancer) appears seven times from generations six through eight – three in the top half and four in the bottom. Selene (Chaucer) comes in nine times back in columns eight and nine, six on the dam’s side. American super mare Lalun (Djeddah) is three times in Too Darn Hot and once in Extensible, and French great La Troienne (Teddy) appears three times in the ninth remove, twice in the top half.
Nearco (Pharos) is the dominant stallion, with 15 mentions, ahead of the 13 for Hyperion (Gainsborough).
Kia Ora sold Extensible’s first throw, a colt by Written Tycoon (Iglesia) who raced as Penciled and didn’t get to the pointy end, winning a Donald maiden in 16 starts.
They were set to sell third foal Tropicus as well but fate intervened – just as well for Kia Ora, since he’s turned out to be the standout of the brood so far.
“He was a beautiful yearling,” Wright says. “He was destined to go to Easter but he had a setback before the sale, so Kia Ora was happy to retain and race him.”
Tropicus only debuted in May of his two-year-old season, with a half-length victory over 1100 metres at Caulfield, before being immediately spelled.
A push out to longer trips that spring resulted in a seventh in the Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) and an eighth in the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m). Being returned to shorter trips led to two more Caulfield victories last year – in the Zeditave Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) and The Heath (Gr 3, 1100m) – before the crowning jewel in his rich affinity with the track last Saturday.
“He was good from the moment he left the farm,” Wright says of Tropicus, Too Darn Hot’s second Australia elite-level winner after current Darley sire Broadsiding, amid five worldwide.
“Brett Cavanough did a very good job of breaking him in, and told us he had ability.
“He had one run as a two-year-old and showed he had good speed. Given his pedigree and the Too Darn Hot influence, we thought he’d get up over a trip, at 1400 or 1600 metres.
“He ran to his merit in every race, but a decision was made to bring him back to sprint trips and that’s when he showed what he really had.
“He’s shown all along that he had the potential, especially when we got him back over the sprint trips. He had form around the very best of them.
“Getting that Group 1 has just highlighted his ability. He is up there with the very best of them, and he deserved his Group 1. It’ll be great to have him stand at the farm.”