TWO-YEAR-OLDS
THERE was no mystery surrounding the destination of the champion European Two-Year-Old title from the moment that Too Darn Hot crossed the line in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes and he deservedly dominates his division.
An unbeaten four-race campaign wich culminated in that superb Dewhurst victory means that Too Darn Hot has been given a rating of 126. This makes him the equal of previous champions New Approach (2007), Frankel and Dream Ahead (2010) and one has to go way back to 1997 to find a champion two-year-old (Xaar – 127) rated higher.
Too Darn Hot fully warrants his dominant position and it will be fascinating to see how far he can go at three. This colt completes a remarkable hat-trick for John Gosden in 2018 as he is responsible for the joint world champion Cracksman and the world’s top rated three-year-old in Roaring Lion.
ENGLISH-TRAINED
In all it was an excellent season for English-trained two-year-olds. Sitting in second place in the ratings is Charlie Appleby’s Quorto. He too is an unbeaten son of Dubawi and he signed off for the season with a length and a quarter success over Anthony Van Dyck (118) in the Group 1 National Stakes.
O’BRIEN CONTINGENT
The highest rated of Aidan O’Brien’s sizeable juvenile contingent is Ten Sovereigns (120) who also boasts a perfect record. He went from a Curragh maiden to winning the Group 3 Round Tower Stakes the following week and five weeks on from his debut the son of No Nay Never landed the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes where he handed Jash (118) the first defeat of his career.
These three unbeaten colts, whose potential is considerable to say the least, made this a fine year on the juvenile front and it will be exciting to see their progress as three-year-olds.
Just a pound behind Ten Sovereigns is the Phoenix Stakes winner Advertise, who chased home Too Darn Hot in the Dewhurst, but arguably the most fascinating two-year-old of all is Calyx who followed up a debut win with a stylish display in the Coventry Stakes.
A setback has kept the son of Kingman off the track since then but the level of ability he showed on his first two outings would suggest that he could be a good deal better than his rating of 115.
It is perhaps a little surprising that Pretty Pollyanna (116) is crowned champion two-year-old filly. She was a superb winner of the Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes and then she won the Group 1 Prix Morny – defeating fellow filly Signora Cabello (114) – but she then came up short in both the Cheveley Park Stakes and the Fillies Mile.
A rating of 116 puts her a pound ahead of the 2017 champion filly Clemmie but she would find herself behind six of the last 10 champion fillies.
Fairyland had Pretty Pollyanna back in fourth when she won the Cheveley Park and she defeated the fillies’ champion on both of their meetings but she is rated 112. Joseph O’Brien’s Fillies Mile heroine Iridessa comes in at 113.
Deservedly though the top rated Irish juvenile filly is Patrick Prendergast’s Skitter Scatter on 114.
Her remarkable camapign enabled her to match the 2011 champion Maybe (116) as she completed the Silver Flash, Debutante and Moyglare Stakes treble.
Among the other interesting prospects to achieve good ratings was Persian King with André Fabre’s charge coming in at 114 after his Group 3 Autumn Stakes triumph over the subsequent Group 1 victor Magna Grecia. Noble Moon is worth a mention as a rare German-trained two-year-old to reach a mark of 110 which came about after he won his country’s top two-year-old race in October.