Tornado Valley (Too Darn Hot) built on a promising debut at Caulfield last month, landing the G3 Darley Maribyrnong Plate, run over 1,000m on Cup Day at Flemington on Tuesday, 4 November.
The Ciaron Maher-trained colt was settled behind the early leaders under Ethan Brown, before making his move at the 300m mark. Tornado Valley then sprinted home to grab the lead and win from the fast-finishing Pinatubo colt Tales Of Time by a long neck. This race represented the first Australian-bred runners for Pinatubo with Carnevale also running well to finish fourth
He could now head for the valuable Magic Millions 2YO Classic at the Gold Coast in January. Bred by Rosemont Stud, he is out of the G1-placed mare Oklahoma Girl, who has a yearling half-brother by Pinatubo.
Too Darn Hot has now sired 29 Black Type winners worldwide, including five-time G1 winner Fallen Angel and fellow top-flight winner Tornado Alert.
Later on the Flemington card, Ghaiyyath’s three-year-old son Different Gravy came from second-last at the home turn to score a dominant victory in the Listed Batman Trophy to continue his sire’s fantastic recent run in Australia.
Trained by Henry Dwyer and patiently ridden by jockey Mark Zahra, Different Gravy swamped Brave Danza and Obvious to win running away by two lengths.
Owned and bred by Mr K McCormick, Different Gravy is of out of the Medaglia d’Oro mare Venerated.
Different Gravy had already demonstrated promise with a narrow second in the Listed Hill Smith Stakes at Morphettville on 18 October and his trainer indicated that he could step up further, with the G1 ATC Derby cited as a possible target.
Ghaiyyath is currently leading second-season sire in Australia with nine winners from only 22 runners, including outstanding colt Observer, who led all the way to win the G1 VRC Derby at Flemington last Saturday, with Freedom Flame, Yum, My Highness and The Padre (two) all winning Stakes races around the world in recent weeks.
