Newmarket trainer John Gosden has not been afraid to admit he made errors in the races he picked this season for Too Darn Hot, and reiterated his failing after the colt won today's Qatar Sussex Stakes.

 

Owned and bred by Lord Lloyd-Webber, and set one day to become a stallion under Sheikh Mohammed's Darley banner, Too Darn Hot was nudged to victory by Frankie Dettori, who was riding his 11th G1 win of a memorable year. The partnership beat Circus Maximus and I Can Fly by half a length and a length and a quarter.

Gosden, who was keen to point out that both he and Lord Lloyd-Webber's racing manager, Simon Marsh, held their hands up for the colt's defeats, said: 

"We knew Phoenix Of Spain and Circus Maximus would go forward, and they set an even pace. Frankie said after that it was a pity they hadn't taken down the auxiliary rail [in the home straight] because he knew it would get tight [among the runners] and it did. At Goodwood it angles out and there's an elbow, but I said 'Just sit tight and if you don't get out everyone will understand - don't go committing three furlongs out' and he didn't but sat tight and when Andrea's horse [Zabeel Prince] got tired the gap opened and we were away.

"His best trip is probably seven furlongs - I've put him in sprints, and wouldn't be afraid of running him in the Sprint on Champions Day at Ascot, but a nice flat mile suits. The Curragh mile was too stiff after we ran him back too soon after the Dante Stakes, and it was the same in the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, where the mile climbs a long way. It caught him out. His mother [Dar Re Mi, a three-time G1 winner who Gosden trained] stayed a mile and a half, but he's all speed.

"He was a champion two-year-old, which proved he was speed. I've been so open that he missed the Greenham Stakes and 2000 Guineas, which I think he would have won, after he threw a splint in training, but we got it wrong running him in the Dante Stakes, which is not his trip. Then we rushed him back, and it was stupid and wrong. Fortunately, the horse has overcome both his manager and his trainer! It was interesting that they [Aidan O'Brien and his patrons] ran Circus Maximus over a mile and a half in the Derby, so we all makes mistakes!

"The horse [Too Darn Hot] has come right now, and it's a pity that Andrew and Madeleine [Lloyd-Webber] are at a music festival in Salzburg, but it's wonderful their horse is back, and he's proved that being champion two-year-old was no fluke.

"We'll probably stick to the Mile now. We know there are lovely G1s ahead, such as the QEII and the Moulin, but to come and win the Sussex is wonderful. To me the great races are the Sussex, the Jacques Le Marois, and the QEII - the all-aged G1s."