Hot And High bearing the fruits of Fogarty's future-focused plan

Cover image courtesy of Western Racepix

After suffering the only defeat of career to date on June 6, 3-year-old Too Darn Hot (GB) filly Hot And High stormed back into form in Saturday’s Listed Belmont Guineas, her sixth win from seven starts. For breeder and owner Brett Fogarty of Cape Falls Thoroughbreds, the filly’s rise has been a plan in the works for 15 years.

The fastest filly in the west

That tale commences with Paris Petard (Mutajid {USA}), a 2003 mare born and bred at Oakland Park Stud, although she would not cross paths with Fogarty until the autumn of her seventh year.

The race record of Paris Petard mirrors that of her granddaughter; she won seven of her eight starts, with her only defeat coming in the G2 Karrakatta Plate where she fought her way forward from near last to finish third. Either side of that single blemish on her otherwise perfect record, she won the G3 WATC Sires’ Produce Stakes, the Listed Belgravia Stakes, and the Listed WATC Gimcrack Stakes.

“Paris Petard was the best 2-year-old by far in her generation in WA,” said Fogarty. “Then she fractured her pelvis as a 3-year-old and went to stud. Neville Duncan is a very good breeder, but he went through some challenging times for his business, so he had a dispersal sale, which included her. In the breeding industry, things are not always a straight line.”

At stud, Paris Petard produced fillies by Viscount and Bletchley Park (Ire), but in 2011, she was part of a 30-strong dispersal of mares from Oakland Park Stud at the Perth Magic Millions Autumn Sale, offered in foal again to Viscount. Fogarty landed the winning bid at $100,000.

“I was very fortunate to buy her,” he said. “I thought if he was selling her, I have to buy her, because she was an absolute cracker on the track and while sometimes those great racemares are not the best breeding stock, those genetics do pass on down the generations.”

Oakland retained Paris Petard’s first foal Paris Cracker (Viscount), who had added to the family tree with dual Listed-winning sprinter-miler Saloon Bar (Sessions).

Having the conviction

Fogarty set his newest acquisition for a date with Street Cry (Ire) first, but after she missed late in the 2012, he sent her to Snitzel in 2013. At the time, Snitzel had begun his steady climb through the fee ranks, and was standing for $49,500 (inc GST).

“We went to him in the last of what I'd call his inexpensive years,” Fogarty said. “Before we got fully involved in breeding, I travelled a lot and I was fortunate to visit some of the best studs in Australia and in Europe. We settled on having a boutique model, and I picked out Snitzel for Paris Petard. In my opinion, Snitzel is by far the most dominant stallion in Australia within the last decade.”

The result of that mating was High Conviction (Snitzel), who started her career with Simon Miller. A sharp winner of both of her first trials as a 2-year-old, she immediately captured the imagination for both trainer and owner-breeder.

“She was the favourite for the Karrakatta Plate at one stage, but we didn’t get her there,” Fogarty said. High Conviction won two races in the June of her juvenile year, but then didn’t grace the track again for 52 weeks. Returning towards the end of her 3-year-old year, she won first up and placed at her two subsequent starts.

“Unfortunately for her, she had quite bad knees, and in hindsight, if I had known that then I wouldn’t have raced her as a 2-year-old,” Fogarty reflected. “Lindsey Smith had her at the end of her career and he said to me that she was the fastest horse he had ever trained. I was quite disappointed at the time when she had to be retired, because she was an outstanding racemare.

“It’s just one of those unfortunate stories where we never actually got to see 10% of her potential.”

Nevertheless, High Conviction was to be an important part of the Cape Falls Thoroughbreds breeding program. It didn’t matter in the long run to Fogarty that the mare wasn’t able to demonstrate her full potential on the track, because his aims for her offspring were about more than commerciality.

“We are very much trying to be here as a program for 30, 40, 50 years,” Fogarty said. “Everything we do at Cape Falls is not about selling high-priced yearlings, it’s not about even running a particularly economical business model. We were offered very, very good money for her, but how we see the direction we want to go over the next five, 10, 15 years meant we wanted to keep her.

“There’s a gentleman in Europe who has been incredibly successful, who goes by the name of the Aga Khan, and they have been working with the same families for 130 years.”

Fogarty is under no illusion of the high bar he has placed for himself, but it’s a model he has seen work across multiple industries.

“When you look at companies that are doing really well and are synonymous with quality, like Ferrari or Porsche, you will find people who have been doing things really well for 50, 60, 100 years,” he said. “There’s a good reason for that. It’s the same for people who grow and produce wine. The best comes from those willing to invest 10, 20, 30, 40 years.”

Running hot

Before High Conviction visited Too Darn Hot, she produced foals by Sebring and Pride Of Dubai, but it was Darley’s second season shuttler who had attracted Fogarty’s eye in 2021.

“When a horse like Too Darn Hot comes along and has Group 1 winners on both sides of the family going back three generations, you look at him and think, ‘well, (it'll be) no surprise when he succeeds, right?’,” he said. “The top stallions are the ones who become the best broodmare sires as well, and she was a mare we had thought was very, very special, so it was a mating we were keen to try.”

At the time, Too Darn Hot stood for $44,000 (inc GST), and just like Snitzel, his fee has subsequently sharply increased. Hot And High, who picked up her sixth victory in seven starts with her win on Saturday, is one of his 16 stakes winners in Australia. Fogarty’s careful analysis of pedigree and career stage has now led him to catch the updraft of two star stallions.

“We aren’t sellers so I can’t justify sending my mares to the top three or four stallions by fee,” Fogarty explained another factor of his selection criteria. “In my mind, those fees reflect the sales ring success, not the racetrack performance.”

With that ethos in mind, High Conviction is currently in foal to Traffic Warden, who debuted at $22,000 (inc GST) in 2025 alongside Too Darn Hot’s best son, Broadsiding. Fogarty’s mares live in the eastern states at Twin Hills Stud and Monarch Stud, giving him access to the cream of the stallion crop in New South Wales and Victoria, but the weanlings come home to his property in Western Australia to grow out.

“We have 700 acres on the Margaret River, near the coast,” he said. “It’s fabulous. It’s beautiful limestone country, so they grow up very healthy. The two studs we use in New South Wales are very good homes. (Monarch’s) Kieran Falvey is a very good man, I have had horses with him for 15 years, and having the horses at Twin Hills means we have easy access to Victorian stallions, where they tend to be more owner focused.”

For High Conviction’s next date however, she will stay in New South Wales, with Fogarty having circled G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Ozzmosis for her.

“I had considered the shuttlers, but I believe in the Coolmore as a real strong stallion-making race,” he said. “And Ozzmosis will hopefully put some leg underneath her as well. I am hoping we get a bit more size with him too.”

Fostering the next generation

Other than fostering his equine families, Fogarty’s main passion is educating and promoting the next generation. The Fogarty Foundation, which seeks to fill educational gaps and provide young people with opportunities to develop, is one of the largest educational charities in Australia.

“Education is the investment you make in life,” Fogarty said. “It’s the same for the horse’s education as well. There are lots of people in the racing industry working very hard to educate others about how we look after our horses, but they need the whole industry united behind them.

“The heart of the thoroughbred industry is fabulous, but it's not understood because we don't market and educate people enough about it.”

In his pursuit of helping the next generation, Fogarty has his horses primarily with three young trainers; Tianna Noske, Summer Dickson, and Dion Luciani, who has tended to the career of Hot And High.

“I couldn’t have more respect for them, especially Dion,” Fogarty said. “All three of them are so fabulous with how they look after the horses. They are real animal lovers, they are really committed to their horses. I have absolute trust in them - if something goes wrong, then I know it genuinely was an accident.”

Luciani in particular has crossed paths with Fogarty numerous times across their lives, and Fogarty is pleased to have developed a close partnership with the trainer.

“Dion rode my first stakes winner as a jockey, and his father was a year above me in school,” he said. “I bumped into his father some four or five years ago and asked what Dion was up to, and he said, ‘he’s working 60, 70 hours a week, he’s never worked harder at something in his life’. I said, ‘great’.

“I watched him for a year or two, and he always seemed to have a nice horse floating around that he could get the best out of, so eventually I sent him a couple of young horses and we built from there. He has always been outstanding with them. He is always so willing to learn more, and we have great conversations about life and about the horses.”

Fogarty wishes that more owners would seek out the next generations of trainers, like Luciani, to give their horses to. Give a young, hungry trainer a horse like Hot And High and trust that they will bring out the best in the animal. After all, there are no Chris Wallers if someone does not entrust him with a good horse.

“Owners need to know there are people of this quality out there, working hard in the industry,” Fogarty said. “They are genuine, they love the horses, and they love what they do. That’s how we keep the industry going.”