IT FEELS somehow wrong not to be devoting a full page to the Group 1 Futurity Trophy winner Hotazhell (Too Darn Hot), but he has already occupied these pages twice, and so I will just recap on the principal aspects of his pedigree this time.

The Jessica Harrington-trained two-year-old colt has now won four of his six starts, and prior to the weekend he won the Group 2 Beresford Stakes winner, a race that is one of the best indicators of future success.

Some of the not-too-distant winners have been Luxembourg, St Nicholas Abbey, Saxon Warrior and Japan for Aidan O’Brien, and the John Oxx trio of Sea The Stars, Alamshar and Azamour. Jessie Harrington trained Curtain Call to win it too, but her most recent success is with a horse who is even better.

Bred by Blue Diamond Stud Farm, Hotazhell first sold for 70,000gns as a yearling when bought by Linehan Bloodstock, and was a profitable 200,000gns pinhook this spring at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale, purchased by Silverton Hill Partnership. He runs in their colours.

Fourth when favourite for a Leopardstown maiden on his debut, Hotazhell won second time out at the Curragh, and built on that success when adding the Group 3 Japan Racing Association Tyros Stakes at Leopardstown. He was second to Henri Matisse in the Group 2 Futurity at the Curragh, with Scorthy Champ a length back in third, and those two opponents occupied the first two places in the Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes.

So, the form was on the page when Hotazhell travelled to Doncaster, and he dug deep to fend off the Ballydoyle runner, Delacroix. It is worth remembering that some of the very recent winners of the Futurity have been Auguste Rodin, Luxembourg, Mac Swiney, Kameko, Magna Grecia, and Saxon Warrior.

Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) has now sired a Group 1-winning juvenile in each of his first two European crops, following on from Fallen Angel’s Moyglare Stud Stakes victory last season. This is not a feat that is inevitable, and he is among an elite few to achieve this, joining the likes of Teofilo, Sadler’s Wells and Vaguely Noble. His second crop is already outstripping his first, with 30 juvenile winners that also includes the multiple group-winning filly Simmering. Too Darn Hot sired 26 winners in his first crop.

Australian crop

Too Darn Hot is sire of the winners of more juvenile group races in his first two crops than any other stallion since the start of the pattern, and he can also claim a Group 1-winning youngster from his first Australian crop. There he was crowned champion first-season sire last season, and has already sired five stakes-winning three-year-olds this season, including Group 1 Golden Rose hero Broadsiding.

Hotazhell is one of four winners out of Azenzar (Danehill Dancer), who was sold for export at last year’s December Sale for 16,000gns, daylight robbery given that she was in foal to Blackbeard (No Nay Never) whose stud fee was €25,000! Azenzar was a winner, and her unraced dam Dashing (Sadler’s Wells) is a half-sister to the outstanding racemare Alexander Goldrun (Gold Away) and the classic-placed sire Medecis (Machiavellian).

Alexander Goldrun’s racing career took her around the world. She won 10 races, among them two editions of the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh, the Group 1 Nassau Stakes at Goodwood, the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp, and her most valuable win in the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup in Sha Tin. She was runner-up in five Group 1 contests and third in the same number of such races.

ANTHONY and Sonia Rogers at Airlie Stud have five foals entered for the Goffs November Sale this year, catalogues for which have recently dropped through letterboxes.

One of the five is Lot 418, selling on the second day, November 19th, and already the page has received a major update.

The foal is a daughter of Study Of Man (Deep Impact), a sire on fire with recent Group 1 winning filly Kalpana, Group 2-winning filly Blithe, and his other stakes winners this year have also been fillies. However, these are not the updates I am talking about.

The filly’s dam Lady Of The Lamp (Invincible Spirit), winner of three of her five starts, is the dam of three winners with her first four foals, one of these being Make You Smile (Mehmas).

Sold well as a foal for €130,000 to Guy O’Callaghan’s Grangemore Stud, Make You Smile made a paper profit as a yearling when purchased by SackvilleDonald for 120,000gns.

Given his purchase price, and his pedigree, it seems surprising that in March this year Make Me Smile was gelded.

He made a winning debut in September, and he has now followed this up with victory in the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes, beating a French listed winner. Clearly on the upgrade, he is a gelding to watch for next season.

At Royal Ascot in 2020, Circus Maximus brought his Group 1 tally to three on the opening day of the meeting, adding the Queen Anne Stakes to prior victories in the previous year’s St James’s Palace Stakes at the same course, and the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp at ParisLongchamp.

He retired to stud at Coolmore, where he was for three seasons, and his first crop of two-year-olds are off the mark.

A son of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), Circus Maximus is the only offspring of Lady Of The Lamp’s Danehill Dancer (Danehill) half-sister Duntle, herself a winner at Royal Ascot when she took the honours in the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes.

Duntle, who raced in the Niarchos colours, won five of her nine starts, but was demoted to second after passing the post first in the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown. She was runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Rothschild and finished third in the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes.

Sonia Rogers

Duntle was bred and raced initially by Sonia Rogers. Failing to sell as a foal and as a yearling, Duntle did change hands after winning a maiden on her second start. Her winning dam, Lady Angola (Lord At War), is closely related to the best horse in the third generation of Make You Smile’s family, Grade 1 Turf Classic winner Honor In War (Lord At War). He is out of Lady Angola’s US winning half-sister Catumbella (Diesis).

The fourth dam of Make You Smile is Lady Winborne (Secretariat), and she raced twice, winning a maiden and finishing third in the Group 3 Brownstown Stakes.

She was a half-sister to the brilliant Allez France (Sea Bird), whose Group 1 successes included the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Prix Ganay twice, the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas, Prix de Diane-French Oaks, Prix Vermeille and Prix d’Ispahan.

The best of Lady Winborne’s 13 winners, five at stakes level, was Al Mamoon (Believe It) who won the Grade 1 John Henry Handicap and was runner-up in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile, while her daughter La Gueriere (Lord At War) won the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Stakes and bred the Grade 1 winner Icon Project (Empire Maker).