‘I think he’s going to be a very special stallion’: Lizzie lifts McKeever’s confidence in Too Darn Hot to new heights

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

It may not have been the most impressive Waterhouse Bott 2-year-old performance on the Gold Coast on Saturday, owing to Storm Boy’s R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic dominance, but that should certainly take nothing away from the manner in which promising filly Too Darn Lizzie waltzed away from her rivals to win the fillies' division of the lucrative Magic Millions The Debut on Saturday.

Sent off a $1.85 off the back of a taking 4.25l trial victory at Warwick Farm, Too Darn Lizzie looked to have a real fight on her hands at the top of the straight, but once she hit top gear under Tim Clark, there was plenty to like about the way in which the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained filly accelerated away from a field of well-regarded debutantes to win in comfortable fashion.

Having cost her trainers, Watership Down Stud and McKeever Bloodstock a cool $1 million at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, the latter confessed to feeling one overriding emotion as the regally bred juvenile crossed the line 1.5l clear of her nearest pursuer.

“It was quite a relieving moment I must say,” McKeever told The Thoroughbred Report.

“I knew she was quite good, but when they first run against a load of other horses who have never run, you don’t know what you’re taking on or how good they are. But Tim Clark had chosen to ride her, which I think was a fair indication that she was thought to be the better of the Waterhouse-Bott duo.

“I think we were expecting that she would win, but I’m very glass half empty when it comes to race results. I’m glass half full when I’m buying them but I’m glass half empty when the actual moment arrives when they’ve got to do the job on the track.”

A nervous wait

Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, of musical theatre fame, together with his wife Madeleine Lloyd Webber, bred and raced Champion 2-Year-Old and 3-Year-Old Too Darn Hot prior to his retirement to Darley’s stallion barn, and the hugely successful European breeders opted to retain a 50 per cent share in the multiple Group 1-winning Champion as he embarked on the next stage of his career in the covering shed.

As such, the Lloyd Webbers were to keen to support Too Darn Hot in his Southern Hemisphere endeavours, with Watership Down’s general manager Simon Marsh joining McKeever on the Gold Coast last year as the pair perused the stallion’s first Australian-bred crop of yearlings.

Gallery: A million-dollar docket for Too Darn Lizzie on behalf of Lord and Lady Lloyd Webber’s Watership Down Stud

“We searched high and low because we wanted to find something to support Too Darn Hot, and also to give Andrew and Madeleine Lloyd Webber a good taste of what Australia has to offer,” McKeever said.

“Normally when you make great plans like that they don’t come off, but in this instance we went very hard to buy something for more money than what we we initially intended to spend, but we picked this filly as the one we wanted and luckily it seems that she’s quite decent.

“Let’s hope she’ll go on and confirm that in a Group race at some point.”

Named after her part-owner Elizabeth Spender - the widow of legendary comedian Barry Humphries, one of Madeleine Lloyd Webber’s greatest and oldest friends up until his untimely passing in April last year - Too Darn Lizzie hails from the G1 Blue Diamond S. runner-up Enbihaar (Magnus) and has looks befitting of her $1 million price-tag, with McKeever having to fend off stiff competition from one of the country’s leading 2-year-old stables in order to secure her at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

“She was the last one on our list in Book 1 and we decided we liked her the most, so we didn’t bid on 10 or 12 others that we could have bid on,” McKeever recalled.

“Simon (Marsh) had flown off on holiday and just said, ‘make sure you buy her’. I said I thought she’d make $500,000-$$700,000 because she was so special looking, and when the bidding happened I was sat with Gai and Adrian, but I was the one who had to make the decision.

“When the McEvoys started bidding against us, I knew it was them and I couldn't believe how hard they were bidding. When it got to $950,000 I really didn’t know what the hell to do, because I knew that was beyond what everyone had been expecting, but I thought we couldn’t let her go because she was so nice.

“So I bid a million, and then I had an agonizing four or five hour wait until Simon’s plane landed in Vietnam, where he was going on holiday, to tell him what I’d done. Everyone was coming up to me and saying well done, and I was going, ‘Oh my god, I think I’ve just bought my first ever horse for myself for a million!’.”

Much to McKeever’s relief, Marsh was very understanding, as was Lady Lloyd Webber, whom McKeever revealed has a cool head when it comes to her racing and breeding interests.

“Luckily, when Simon landed he said that’s ok and that Madeleine would give me a call,” he added. “She did and said, ‘Well that was a little bit more than what we expected, wasn’t it?’, to which I replied, ‘Yes, I’m afraid so’. She then said, ‘Let’s look at it as a promotion for the stallion’, so she took it very well, and luckily I think we did get the horse she wanted.

“Madeleine is very experienced. Her and Andrew have owned and raced a lot of top, top horses and they know the highs and lows of everything, so nothing would surprise them.”

An insatiable demand

While Tony and Calvin McEvoy may have missed out on Too Darn Lizzie, the Victorian-based duo wasted no time in finding a suitable replacement, signing the docket at $220,000 alongside Damon Gabbedy’s Belmont Bloodstock Agency (FBAA) for a Too Darn Hot filly out of Maraam (Street Cry {Ire}) later that week.

Subsequently named Arabian Summer, that filly is now a two-time winner whom McKeever feels was unlucky not to have finished in the frame in Saturday’s R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic on the Gold Coast, and whom has helped fly the flag for Too Darn Hot’s first Southern Hemisphere crop of 2-year-olds this season.

The stallion, whose first juvenile crop in the Northern Hemisphere features G1 Moyglare Stud S. heroine Fallen Angel (GB), has everything it takes to be a success Down Under according to McKeever, from his regal pedigree to his outstanding physical attributes.

“He’s one of the most beautifully bred stallions to go to stud in the last five or six years, his breeding is completely impeccable and he also has the looks,” McKeever said.

“I like him crossed over Australian stock because he’s an elegant horse - he’s not light of bone or anything, but he’s certainly not a heavy horse. He’s just quality.

“I think some of the bigger, stronger Aussie mares are very good matings for him, and I’ve loved the look of the stock I’ve seen. There were four or five who I gave a rating of nine to on the Gold Coast last week, and they all made good money, including the one who topped Wednesday’s session.

“I found the Aussies were always quite positive about this horse in comparison to most other imported stallions from the Northern Hemisphere. They have really embraced him, and I just can’t believe that we’re not on the right track here. I think he’s going to be a very special stallion.”

With four winners, the most of any first-season sire thus far, from his six Southern Hemisphere runners to date, Too Darn Hot trails only Alabama Express in the leading first-season sire standings by prizemoney.

Such promising early results undoubtedly helped fuel an insatiable demand for his second crop of yearlings in the Magic Millions sales ring last week, with his 10 yearlings in Book 1 all finding homes at an average price of $454,000, a figure which saw him comfortably in the top 10 stallions by that metric, which is no mean feat for a second-season sire.

Last week also saw the sale of the most expensive Too Darn Hot yearling anywhere in the world, with Ciaron Maher Bloodstock and David Redvers Bloodstock going to $1.9 million - the second-highest price of the sale - for his colt out of the multiple Group winner A Time For Julia (Redoute’s Choice).

There’s more to come on the track later this year too, according to McKeever, with Too Darn Hot’s debut crop of juveniles only hitting their straps towards the latter end of the season in the Northern Hemisphere.

“They’ve come much earlier in Australia than what the pattern was in Europe,” McKeever said. “I think at Royal Ascot he hardly had a runner, whereas if you equate the Gold Coast as the first big 2-year-old meeting, to have two runners on the day is pretty amazing to me.

“I think the slightly speedier blood of the Australian mares seems to be a good cross. Too Darn Lizzie’s mum is by Magnus, which is all speed, but there will also be some who will benefit from a little more time.

“The Lloyd Webbers have another Too Darn Hot, which I bought at Easter off Segenhoe, out of a mare called Majesty. He’s with the Hayes boys and he’d be a more European type of Too Darn Hot. He’s not going to be particularly early, but he’s showing them that he’s a lovely mover and is giving them all a good feel.

“My new trainer Dom Sutton has also got one which we bought at Easter and he thinks that she is the bees knees as well. She looks very, very nice and is called Carolina Breeze.

“When you get the likes of the McEvoys, the Hayeses, and Gai and Adrian all saying that they like his yearlings, these are very, very good yearling judges. Yearlings can look the part and everything can go spectacularly wrong when they don’t run well, but I think we might have the winning combination here.”

More fireworks at Karaka?

Another Champion Trainer to have shown an affinity for the stock of Too Darn Hot is Ciaron Maher, evidenced by his $1.9 million purchase of one of his sons during the second session of last week’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

The Maher-Eustace stable also secured a Too Darn Hot colt for NZ$130,000 during Book 1 of last year’s New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale, an auction which his sire ended as the leading first-season sire by average having also sold the second-highest lot through the ring, the NZ$750,000 half-brother to Group 2 winner Excelida (Exceed And Excel), who was also sent into training with the Maher stable.

“He was a very, very nice horse,” McKeever recalled. “Ciaron Maher also bought one there for not so much money off Cambridge Stud, and I thought it was an absolute star of a horse.

“I gather that there must have been some sort of tiny vetting issue that meant he didn’t run into big money there, but I believe Ciaron thinks that he is a very good horse, which might be behind his decision to buy a couple of top-priced ones on the Gold Coast.

“Ciaron is another outstanding judge of a yearling. These people are leading trainers because they keep buying the right horses in my opinion.

“These are very exciting times. We’re just on the cusp of a wave here and let’s hope it comes into shore.”

Needless to say, Too Darn Hot’s three yearlings catalogued for Book 1 of the New Zealand Bloodstock (NZB) Karaka Yearling Sale will be the first thing McKeever lays eyes on when he makes his way across the Tasman later this month.