Widden Stud, the famous Hunter Valley breeding property, has pulled off a major coup by securing a half-share in three-time Group 1 winner and leading stallion prospect Hotazhell.
Just three days after Hotazhell defeated some of Europe’s best weight-for-age horses in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes, Widden announced they had negotiated a 50 per cent share in the outstanding four-year-old.
Widden Stud supremo Antony Thompson confirmed he had acquired Hotazahell with Nicolas de Chambure’s Haras d’Etreham in France.
“We are very excited to be able to buy half the horse,” Thompson told Racing And Sports.
“Hotazhell first came to my attention as a two-year-old, we followed him through his three-year-old season, and now as a four-year-old.
“I thought there was a chance we could buy him earlier this year after his Group 1 win in Germany and hoped we could even bring him down for the Cox Plate but his owners wanted to keep racing him.
“Fortunately, we have been able to negotiate the deal and I genuinely believe Hotazhell is ideally suited to the Australian market.”
A son of the champion sire Too Darn Hot and out of a Danehill Dancer mare from the family of the champion Alexander Goldrun, Hotazhell has all the hallmarks of the Dubawi line: “Precocity, speed and toughness.”
Hotazhell proved himself one of the leading colts of his generation in Europe as a juvenile, earning a Timeform rating of 121 including his win in the Group 1 Futurity Stakes defeating the outstanding Delacroix.
After finishing third in the Irish Guineas last yaer, he returned to the highest level this year with Group 1 wins in Germany and Ireland.
Hotazhell’s sire Too Darn Hot has already been represented by eight Group 1 winners and belongs to a rare group of stallions to have enjoyed success in both hemispheres.
In Australia he has established himself as an elite sire, standing at $275,000 inc. GST, with two Group 1-winning colts now at stud and a further 36 stakes winners to his name.
This season, Too Darn Hot has sired new Group winners American Eagle and Bangkok Hottie. Hotazhell will be his first son to stand at stud in Europe early next year before coming to Australia for the 2027 spring breeding season .
Thompson is convinced Hotazhell has the bloodlines, race profile and physical attributes that will work in Australia.
“He has an outstanding racing profile, having been a Group 1 winner at two in Great Britain before going on to win the Irish Champion Stakes last weekend, one of Europe’s great weight-for-age races, and easily comparable in significance to Australia’s Cox Plate,” Thompson said.
“When you combine that level of performance with his pedigree and physical attributes, we feel he has all the qualities to become a significant stallion in Australia.”
Thompson said it is a “great pleasure” to be partners with a farm of Haras d’Etreham’s standing.
“Like Widden, they are a generational family operation with an incredible history in French breeding, and they share similar values to our own,” he said.
Hotazhell will make his racing swansong on British Champions Day at Ascot next month before joining Haras d’Etreham, where for almost a century the farm has had a great record for producing famous champions.
Group 1 winners such as Maximova, Urban Sea, Septième Ciel, Anabaa Blue, King’s Best, Baiser Volé and, more recently, the European champion Almanzor and the leading American filly Uni were all raised at Haraa d’Etreham, and the farm launched the stallion career of the champion sire Wootton Bassett before his sale to Coolmore Stud for a record sum.
Nicolas de Chambure said Hotzahell’s pedigree and race record are of the “very highest standard, and his conformation is impeccable”.
“He has great presence and quality, and plenty of size and scope. He really ticks all the boxes,” he said.
“The partnership with Widden Stud came about naturally, and we are delighted to be working with Antony and his team, who are a leading force in Australia and with whom we share the same vision.”
