When Mr. Hot Stuff had placed in two graded stakes and was being pointed for classics, the habit was funny, cute, good to lighten any mood around the barn. When he’d lost six, seven, eight, 10 races in a row, the trick was no longer cute.
“He’d get a big mouthful of hay from the back of his stall, come up front and just throw it in the shedrow,” former owner Bill Casner said of the ultra-handsome son of Tiznow who washed out as a flat horse and is now rising through the steeplechase ranks. “We’d all laugh and think it was funny when he was a Derby horse.”
Mr. Hot Stuff, who runs in Saturday’s Zeke Ferguson Memorial at Colonial Downs, did the trick one day after he got beat (at 3-2) at Golden Gate Fields and somebody said “I hate that horse.”
They didn’t really, but he was frustrating. Big, beautiful, obviously talented, Mr. Hot Stuff wound up 1-for-18 with WinStar and trainer Eoin Harty. His claims to fame were thirds in the Sham Stakes and Santa Anita Derby and starts in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes of 2009. He finished 15th behind Mine That Bird in the Derby and eighth behind Summer Bird in the Belmont. Less than a year later, the winner of just one race was sold to steeplechase trainer Jack Fisher. Much like his flat career, Mr. Hot Stuff started slowly for owner Gill Johnston – losing twice early in 2011, but got it together for back-to-back wins in May and June. Then he missed 2012 with a tendon injury and returned in 2013, as a 7-year-old, to win the $75,000 Marcellus Frost Stakes for novices at Nashville last month.
He makes his first start in open company Saturday – four years since that Belmont Stakes try. Like always with the dark bay gelding, a full-brother to Grade 1 winner and sire Colonel John, opinions are high.
“As good as he’d like to be,” Fisher said when asked how good Mr. Hot Stuff is. “He’s got talent, loads of talent. He just never applied himself or found something he really wanted to do. I think horses that try the Derby or some of those other races and try really hard, if things don’t go right, they get beaten and then they don’t want to try that hard after that.”
Racing over jumps, at a slower pace, going longer distances, on the turf, makes a difference to some and it’s helped Mr. Hot Stuff. It doesn’t hurt that he’s built for it. The horse is tall, thin, athletic, leggy, with a huge stride).
“He’s a beautiful horse, he’s well put together, he’s an athlete,” said Fisher, based in Maryland. “And he showed he had talent on the flat. The favorite in that race Saturday, Decoy Daddy, never ran in the Kentucky Derby, never ran in the Belmont Stakes.”
He’s also not on Facebook and Twitter.
Whether it’s his name, his good looks or his potential – surely it’s all three – Mr. Hot Stuff has a following. He owes at least part of his fame to a Colorado ski trip, where Casner’s son-in-law Clark Anderson skied with reckless abandon while wearing a pink “Hot Stuff” hat. Anderson was a good enough skier to get away with it, but took plenty of ribbing. Casner and his wife Susan joked about naming a horse in honor of the trip. Hot Stuff was taken, but Mr. Hot Stuff was available, and so began a career path Casner compared to that of Paris Hilton. A Saratoga restaurant named a dish after the horse, famous for being famous. Mr. Hot Stuff apparel, pink of course, sold well on WinStar’s online store. YouTube videos – set to music of course – were made. Search Mr. Hot Stuff horse.
“He might have been the most fun horse we had,” said Casner, whose wife Susan picked out Mr. Hot Stuff’s dam Sweet Damsel at Keeneland. “People oohed and aahhed over him everywhere, he was just a big touting horse. He won his maiden race and looked pretty impressive. We thought we had the one.”
They didn’t.
Mr. Hot Stuff would run similar races, featuring a late charge at the end where he ran past tiring horses and finished second a few times, third a few times, sixth a few times. He lost 13 in a row after that February 2009 maiden win and sold to Fisher, first for Virginian Nick Arundel. When Arundel passed away, Johnston bought the horse and left him with Fisher. Now she’s hooked just like everyone else. As part of Mr. Hot Stuff’s recovery from the tendon injury, he spent time on Johnston’s farm in Chattanooga, Tenn.
“He’s a really laid-back horse, easy to do anything with and no problem to work around,” she said. “He always had his head hanging way out of the door looking for attention. I used to think they were pretty high stall doors until he looked out over them.”
Johnston doesn’t go for social media, but laughed at her horse’s popularity.
“He’s got a secret admirer somewhere,” she said. “A lot of people think he’s still flat racing and now he might be a superstar over jumps. I think it adds a little something extra because of who he is, and even people who don’t know his story pay attention because of his name. People hear that and they want to look at him, pay attention to him and see him. It’s a great story.”
It’s also a great example. Mr. Hot Stuff, like many Thoroughbreds, ran out of options on the flat. He was briefly good enough to be among the elite and was lucky to be owned by a high-level operation, but he faced a life of declining ability, weaker competition, lesser tracks and the rest. In a better economy, his bloodlines may have helped him become a stallion (he wasn’t gelded until after the sale) but it would have been a stretch. Instead, his good looks, long stride, innate stamina got him noticed and got him out of flat racing and on to a second career.
“They’ve been bred for 400 years for their athleticism and as we well know that comes in every shape and size,” said Casner, who left WinStar in 2010 and now operates Casner Racing from a base in Texas with his wife. “Every Thoroughbred needs a job, it’s bred into them. All they ask from us is a little feed, some care, a warm stall on a cold night and to find them that job. They’ll work their hearts out for you if you find them the right job.”
Casner couldn’t be happier that Mr. Hot Stuff found his.
More on Mr. Hot Stuff:
TIHR article from spring 2013.
YouTube video set to “You Think You’re Hot Stuff” by Jean Knight.
And another YouTube video featuring Mr. Hot Stuff the horse and a few humans who think they’re “Hot Stuff” in the world’s clashiest ski suit – watch the whole thing.
Colonial Downs entries for Saturday. He’s very live at 6-1.
TIHR Handicapping for Colonial Downs jump races.
