A milestone first Australian Group 1 winner for Too Darn Hot (GB) as Godolphin’s progressive Broadsiding ploughed through the mud to capture Saturday’s $1,000,000 Group 1 Moet & Chandon Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Randwick.
Ridden by James McDonald for James Cummings, Broadsiding was back near the tail of the field when making the home turn.
McDonald scythed between runners to set out after the Super Seth colt Linebacker who had fought off the leader Anode and the filly Manaal, but had no answer when collared by Broadsiding inside the 100m.
Run in atrocious conditions, McDonald gave a salute of the whip as Broadsiding defeated Linebacker by three-quarters of a length with four and a half lengths back to the Pierata colt Fearless ahead of the favourite Manaal (Tassort).
“This is a big deal for the farm, to get the first two-year-old colt to win a Group One this season is amazing,” James Cummings said.
“I just begged James (McDonald) to ride the horse that way and it’s really paid off. He’s performed so strongly. He loved that quick back-up. He’s excelled once he’s got to a mile and that’s the class of the European pedigree coming through, and that told in the finish.
“He’s been a real work in progress. He’s the type of horse that has improved with a lot of experience, a lot of handling. We took him for a trip to Melbourne and back. A lot of that travelling has helped wake him up and mature the horse.
“He’s just got this very interesting future about him, being by Too Darn Hot who is an emerging sire for us. He (Too Darn Hot) was a colt raced by Andrew Lloyd Webber for John Gosden and he was an exceptional two-year-old himself. He won by seven lengths on debut as a two-year-old over a mile on a softish track, and that gave me a little bit of confidence about today.
“But look, this colt is out of a Street Cry mare, he’s got a big future. He’s taken down a couple of big guns but he’s just done such a great job this prep to keep improving and get all the way here to the final Group One in Sydney as the first colt to win a Group One (this season) is a big performance.”
James McDonald said it was a tough performance in very ordinary conditions.
“It’s not a lot of fun out there but when you win a Group One, I suppose it’s good fun,” McDonald said.
“Gee, he’s a trier. He had it written all over him last start, so I came here with good confidence. I thought he would handle the conditions well. He was a nice, fit horse.
“Sometime I do what I’m told, and sometimes I don’t. He left us with no real option. It was just get back and brush home and if you handle it, you handle it. Race tactics don’t really get involved there. You’re either on a horse that can handle it, or if you’re not you’re cast”.
The Godolphin homebred comes from a stakes-laden family dating back to the 1982 AJC Doncaster Handicap, All Aged Stakes, and ARC Railway Handicap winner (My) Gold Hope (John's Hope).
Sadly, this is where this branch of the family ends, as Broadsiding's dam Speedway had only two colt foals before dying in 2022.
A talented daughter of Street Cry (IRE), Speedway made 11 starts for three Godolphin trainers, John O'Shea, Darren Beadman and James Cummings. She won at Wyong and Newcastle and placed a further three times.
Her half-sister Flit (Lonhro) won the Group 1 MRC One Thousand Guineas, Group II ATC Light Fingers Stake, and Group III VRC Thoroughbred Breeders' Stakes, and her dam Glissade (Redoute's Choice) is a stakes-placed daughter of the Group III AJC Breeders' Classic winner Steflara (Zabeel).
Broadsiding is the first Group 1 winner in Australia for Darley Stud's outstanding young stallion Too Darn Hot (GB), and his second overall after the Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Fallen Angel.
With Perspiration winning earlier in the day at Mornington, Too Darn Hot (GB) will move to the top of the first season sire table for earnings and individual winners.
