An unexpected boost for vendors of Too Darn Hot's first-crop yearlings

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Too Darn Hot was always going to be one of the most sought-after first-crop sires during the forthcoming yearling sales season, being a champion at two and three with an outstanding pedigree and the good looks to match – and duly having covered glittering books of mares since his retirement to Dalham Hall Stud.

He has recently received another rather more unlikely boost to his profile, though, in the form of his relatively obscure older half-brother De Treville coming up with a number of nice performers from his small crops conceived in France.

De Treville was the result of Watership Down Stud sending its brilliant racemare Dar Re Mi – one of four top-level scorers out of the operation’s foundation mare Darara, a Prix Vermeille-winning half-sister to Darshaan – to Oasis Dream for her first mating.

The colt was sold to Charlie Gordon-Watson for 850,000gns to top the third and final session of Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in 2013, and entered training with Andre Fabre for Rashit Shaykhutdinov in the following year.

He won a Chantilly maiden and finished second in the Prix des Chênes at two, and took a Longchamp conditions race and notched placings in the Prix de Guiche, Prix Paul de Moussac and Prix de la Porte Maillot at three.

With no Group race successes to his name by the end of that Classic season, and connections no doubt eager for him to acquire one so that he could make use of that pedigree by becoming a commercially popular sire, he was sent to John Shirreffs in California and Andreas Wöhler in Germany but neither international endeavour bore much fruit.

Shaykhutdinov was therefore left having to stand De Treville at a negligible fee and getting behind the horse himself when the time came for him to retire to stud in 2018.

His first crop, conceived at Haras du Thenney at an advertised fee of €3,000, comprises 21 three-year-olds, 13 of whom were bred by his owner. There are only three winners among them, but two of those happen to be Listed-placed – Diadema, the runner-up in the Prix des Jouvenceaux et des Jouvencelles at Vichy last July, and Gregarina, who was beaten a short head into second in the Prix Volterra at Longchamp last month.

Shaykhutdinov has really cornered the market when it comes to De Treville’s second generation of 28 two-year-olds, which were conceived after his move to Haras du Mezeray. He bred all but five of them and has retained most, dividing them between trainers Fabrice Chappet and Georgios Alimpinisis in Chantilly and Mirek Rulec in Strasbourg.

It looks as though he has been rewarded for his loyalty to the sire as one of them – Gain It, a full-sister to Gregarina who went unsold at €28,000 at the Arqana October Yearling Sale – is now unbeaten in two starts for Chappet after despatching her rivals by a stunning seven lengths in a Saint-Cloud conditions race on Saturday.

It remains to be seen whether Shaykhutdinov can single-handedly propel De Treville to a successful stallion career in the long term. It’s not entirely out of the question, as Guy Pariente performed a similar miracle with his rags-to-riches sire Kendargent.

In the meantime, though, Too Darn Hot’s many supporters might be asking themselves if De Treville can come up with a few decent horses in spite of having covered only small numbers of mares in the shadows, what might his younger half-brother who has had every opportunity thrown at him achieve?

De Treville: good results augur well for his younger sibling's progeny

The son of Dubawi covered 171 mares, 97 of whom were black-type performers, at a fee of £50,000 in his first season. As a taster of the quality contained in the resultant crop of 127 yearlings, there are half or three-parts sisters to Arabian Queen, Cascadian, Galileo Gold, Journey and Lord North; fillies out of Agnes Stewart, Nahoodh and Sultanina; half or three-parts brothers to Dr Zempf, Masar, Quorto, Subjectivist and Time Test; and colts out of Endless Time, Flying Cloud and Turret Rocks.

The first chance to buy a Too Darn Hot yearling in Europe comes at the Arqana August Yearling Sale in just under a month’s time, with the five set to come onto the market there all boasting strong pedigrees.

Four are fillies – one out of Chriselliam’s Grade 3-placed half-sister Janicellaine from Ballylinch Stud, one out of the Listed-winning Lope De Vega mare Lida from Ecurie des Monceaux, one out of the dual Group 2-winning Sea The Stars mare Night Music from Haras du Cadran and one out of Persian King’s half-sister Pretty Spirit from Monceaux again.

The sole Too Darn Hot colt at Deauville has an especially striking page. Being offered by Baroda Stud, he is a half-brother to Poule d’Essai des Pouliches heroine Beauty Parlour, now the dam of US Grade 1 winner Blowout, as well as Listed winner Barocci, with the siblings being out of Bastet, a Listed-winning Giant’s Causeway half-sister to antipodean megastar Might And Power.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the unexpectedly admirable output of De Treville is mentioned a few times in sales patter by stable doors on the grounds at Arqana next month.

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