Champion jockey Willie Pike was a favourite with punters when he diffused a wide draw to power home on Oakland Park homebred Too Darn Stormy at Belmont on Saturday.
Pike slotted into the running line and Too Darn Stormy received a nice cart into the race to win the Unite Resourcing Plate (1200m) by a half-length from Moonwalk (Bondi) and Playin’it Sweet (Playing God).
“He’s a professional with plenty of upside,” Pike said after dismounting from the heavily-backed debutant. “He jumped and came back underneath me when they slowed up in front. He has a good attitude with a turn of foot and feels like a ready-made racehorse.”
Too Darn Stormy was bred by Oakland Park owners Neville and Susan Duncan and they brought him back home from Sydney after bidding stalled short of a $400,000 reserve on Day 2 of the 2024 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
He’s by Sheikh Mohammed’s instant stud success Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) who will shuttle to Kelvinside Stud in the Hunter Valley for a $275,000 (inc GST) service fee this year. That’s an astronomical increase on the $44,000 it cost the Duncans to breed Too Darn Stormy from their Metal Storm (Fr) mare Stormy Nova in 2021.
“Too Darn Hot was Champion 2YO and 3YO Colt in Europe,” Neville Duncan said in May 2023. “He’s a stunning individual and our foals are cracking types.”
Apart from Too Darn Stormy, Oakland Park’s foals from that second southern crop included a filly from Shinta Mani (Viscount) and colt out of French-bred mare Canndiyara (Sinndar). The filly is an unraced 2yo named White Hot with Pearce Racing and is raced by Oakland Park in partnership with the Litton family’s Hamlin Bay Thoroughbreds. The colt is also an unraced 2yo with Cranbourne trainer Grahame Begg who bought him for $180,000 at the 2024 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale. He has been named Chillies.
Oakland Park’s Too Darn Hot connection continued at the 2024 Inglis Digital April Sale when its proven broodmare Molto Allegro (Fast ‘N’ Famous) made $300,000. Purchased by Yes Bloodstock, she was sold carrying a PPT to Too Darn Hot. Molto Allegro delivered a filly last September and she is the final foal for the mare following Superstorm (G1 VRC Cantala Stakes), Cosmic Storm (G3 La Trice Classic), Mikimoto (LR Burgess Queen Stakes) and Royal Command (LR WA Tattersall’s Cup).
Stormy Nova was a Group 3 winner of the WATC Champion Fillies Stakes (1600m) and Sir Ernest Lee-Steere Classic (1400m) in 2004-05 and was named WA Broodmare of the Year 2021-22. She’s a half-sister to LR Perth Stakes (1100m) winner Beethoven (Helmet) and the family goes back to Bruckner (G3 MRC HDF McNeil Stakes), Jukebox (G3 MRC Vain Stakes) and G1 Kingston Town Classic winner Ihtsahymn (Ihtiram).