Quick double proving Tango is well worth the cash

Hidden away in the space of about 15 minutes during a busy spell of racing late last Friday afternoon came an achievement which in its own way rivals anything managed by stallion luminaries over the following weekend.

Steele Tango has just two currently known runners, from four to have ever appeared in Racing Post records. In the apprentice handicap at Newbury, Liam Wright first helped the Mark Usher-trained Tin Fandango to quite a cosy victory, the third of his career after a fine second to former Triumph Hurdle winner Pentland Hills on his Flat comeback at Haydock.

Not long afterwards, Steele Tango's only other recorded winner, Red Derek, took his score to two for Lisa Williamson in a ten-furlong event at Doncaster.

The news was received with delight by Fiona Wilson, who stands Roger Teal's Group 3 winner at her Lodge Farm at Warmington near Peterborough.

"I'm sure they’re the only two in training and both of them won on the same day - how many other horses can you say that about?" she said.

"I was talking to Roger Teal’s wife Sue the other day because she rang up about him and she said he wants some National Hunt mares. I said he wants mares full stop. A horse like him, he's American-bred and people go with fashion so they just don't get the custom."

Steele Tango is the most successful son of the Wertheimer family's brilliant juvenile Okawango, by Kingmambo. His unraced dam is out of a half-sister to the mighty Last Tycoon and he was brought to Europe from the Keeneland yearling sales as a breeze-up prospect.

Bought by Geoffrey Howson for 30,000gns at the Tattersalls Craven Sale, he would provide foundations for Teal's budding training career by winning five races including two big handicaps in Dubai and even featuring behind Sea The Stars in the Eclipse.

Red Derek (right) had a fine battle with Pentland Hills at Haydock in SeptemberCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

It has, nonetheless, been an uphill battle to promote Steele Tango even at a low fee. Wilson expects him to remain at around £500 next year.

"He does get some, I've got three thoroughbred mares of my own but he tends to get sport horse mares," she says. "It's a bit of a pity because sometimes I sit down and look at the stallions and their fees and then what they've done, and they're not as good as him.

"He'll always live here, he’s 17 now. They almost just have to walk past the door and the mares are in foal."

A couple of minor handicap winners is probably not going to prompt a deluge of new breeders coming through the door at Lodge Farm but both Red Derek and Tin Fandango have been notably consistent individuals who should have more to offer, along with the odd youngster.

"He’s proved he can produce them in the mud, and Red Derek was bred here," says Wilson.

"His full-brother, a two-year-old, belongs to the same owner. He’s here growing up before he goes hopefully into training as a three-year-old. They all grow big, and much bigger than him."

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