Tea For Two: 'He was probably the best-looking horse in training'

Fans' Favourites is a weekly feature in the Racing Post Weekender in which we talk to those closest to racing's most popular horses and find out why they tug on our heartstrings. This week's subject: Tea For Two

Jane Williams may be a touch biased when she says Tea For Two was probably the best-looking horse in training but there is no getting away from the fact the imposing chaser always caught the eye.

The dual Grade 1 winner had substance as well as style, and helped to propel Lizzie Kelly from a point-to-point rider to a history-maker and a flagbearer for female jockeys before her retirement in 2020.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but Williams, who owned Tea For Two and trained him under her own name for the final year of his career, instantly fell in love with her stable star at the sales in May 2012.

"It was love at first sight," says Williams. "He was absolutely my kind of horse: quite tall, unfurnished but with the most amazing head. He was a standout model and I wasn't going to leave the sales without him – £24,000 was a lot of money for us but I just kept bidding."

Tea For Two proved to be worth every penny and won his first start in a bumper at Wincanton in April 2013, when trained by Nick Williams, and provided Lizzie Kelly with one of her first professional victories – Jane Williams described her daughter as a "baby rider" in those days.

The yard sometimes sold horses to develop their facilities but luckily, if not a little inexplicably, nobody was interested in Tea For Two and Williams was able to sell a third of him to her friend Len Jakeman.

"With that win in the bag, we thought he was really valuable," says Williams. "He was probably the best-looking horse in racing. I was afraid we'd have to sell but nobody from other yards wanted him.

"Len bought a third so Tea For Two could stay here and he was happy for Lizzie to keep riding – we were so lucky as he was an absolute star. That's the story and everybody knows what happened next."

Tea For Two won three times over hurdles, including in the Listed Lanzarote Hurdle, but his future was always over fences and on Boxing Day at Kempton in 2015 he advertised his huge potential when winning the Kauto Star Novices' Chase under Kelly, who became the first female jockey to score at the top level over jumps.

Tea For Two: flying the last in the Kauto StarCredit: Mark Cranham

"I probably didn't appreciate what it meant," says Kelly. "I was just delighted to ride a big winner on Boxing Day at Kempton. It didn't bother me if somebody had done it before and I always assumed Nina Carberry or Katie Walsh had already achieved it in Ireland. I didn't know what Mum was talking about when she mentioned it!"

The Cheltenham Festival-winning jockey made more history the following year when becoming only the second female rider to contest the Gold Cup but things did not go to plan for Kelly and Tea For Two, who was sent off at 40-1 and unseated at the second flight.

Following the crushing low of that fall came the incomparable high of winning the Grade 1 Betway Bowl at Aintree, which Williams and Kelly nominate as the highlight of Tea For Two's 37-race career.

"He gave Lizzie a bit of racing history at Kempton but the standout memory is the Betway Bowl following that horrendous fall in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham," says Williams, who adds that a picture of Tea For Two walking in at Aintree has pride of place in her Devon home.

"That was such a bad day but I knew he had a right to be there. It was probably foolhardy of me but I thought we'd give Aintree a go. I told Lizzie to ride him out the back and see where you get to. It was amazing and it really made us feel much better about Cheltenham."

It was vindication for Kelly, who was not only unseated in the Gold Cup, a race she had meticulously planned for, but picked the wrong horse in the Fred Winter, which was won by the yard's Flying Tiger.

"The plan at Aintree was to have a safe round so I'd have laughed at you if you told me we were going to beat Cue Card," adds Kelly. "I went down the back straight and saw the others were off the bridle and Tea For Two was passing them easily enough. I had two in front of me and knew I could outjump them – it was absolutely unreal.

"I'd ridden festival winners but they didn't come close to riding that one because it was so unexpected. It was pure joy whereas some of the big winners I rode later felt like relief after getting the job done.

"I've never experienced anything like it and his jump at the last was all heart. I didn't stop smiling for about three months – I was high on life. Something clicked and I thought 'you're actually quite good at this'. It's a family operation but it's a business and there's pressure."

Lizzie Kelly with her mother Jane Williams after bringing home the BowlCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

It certainly was a family effort, including by Chester Williams, who twice rode the chaser and helped to iron out his quirks at home. Like all superstars, Tea For Two had his own foibles and was hard to load.

"He was very difficult to train," said Williams. "He would get fractious and upset at the racecourses and it was a massive team effort to keep him on the road. He was the worst loader we've ever had.

"We always had to do a lot of other things with him. We took him hunting once – probably the most terrifying thing I've ever seen – we took him eventing, hunter trialling and up on the moors, taking him off in the lorry so he wasn't just going racing but even then he knew.

"We never washed him before racing, either, as that would have really upset him. We put a felt hood on him because he always used to scratch himself in the lorry. He was really quirky but he got better in the end. Even now when he comes back to the yard he marches up to his box and wants to go back into it. He was an intelligent horse."

But he more than made up for his faults, and Kelly adds: "He was so fluid and such a slick jumper. He had such a beautiful stride and always met fences on the right one, except for in the Gold Cup.

"As he reached the end of his career, we started ticking things off the bucket list, like running in the Grand National – you couldn't have asked for a better ride in your first one. All of my friends would have been desperate to get their hands on a horse of half his calibre."

So what made him so popular? Williams thinks it was a combination of his good looks, dominating racing style and the fact people were able to resonate with Kelly's rise through the ranks at a time when female jockeys were more of a collector's item on the bigger days.

"It was a fairytale story with Lizzie. She was one of the leading female riders of the time as she was riding on the big stages. You had this amazing horse with an unknown jockey who was rising through the ranks, which really caught people's imagination. It was just a lovely combination as they went from strength to strength.

Lizzie Kelly with the Betway Bowl trophy after her winning her second Grade 1Credit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

"He was a flagbearer for the yard and helped to build a new stable block. Horses like him encourage your owners and gives the team confidence they can bring on a horse from a reasonably modest family. It helps you believe you can deliver with the right horse."

Tea For Two also gave Kelly the confidence to go toe to toe with more established professionals at the biggest festivals, having worked her way through the ranks with Tea For Two, whom she partnered on his first start in 2013 and on his last at Cheltenham in December 2019.

"It was pretty clear how good he was at home, which helped me to make my decision to turn conditional," says Kelly. "Every time I had to climb up another rung of the ladder, such as going through my claim, he managed to pull off a big race. He was massively important to my career and I sort of carved him into the perfect ride for me.

"He gave me the opportunity to experience what it's like to be a Ruby Walsh or a Richard Johnson, riding in those kind of races. He took me to a lot of big stages and was always the tallest horse in the field. He was imperious and made an inexperienced jockey feel much braver.

"He was really the reason everything else happened as I was able to showcase my talent, which meant I got a lot of big rides I potentially wouldn't have been offered without him. Riding a horse like him was one of the reasons I felt confident riding favourites at the festivals."

Age catches up with us all and Tea For Two did not win a race after the Betway Bowl, partly due to issues with his wind, but he did take his connections to several more big meetings. He ran in the Grand National and ran in two cross-country contests at Cheltenham.

After finishing eighth in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase in 2019, Williams and Kelly knew it was time to retire their horse of a lifetime and he has been enjoying the easy life ever since.

"He's still here," said Williams. "He made history and at the end of it all the thing that caught him out was his wind. We thought he'd make a nice cross-country horse but he'd done everything. He ran okay at Cheltenham but we all said 'that's it' and we decided to make an announcement there and then. He's still here and he'll never leave.

"He's absolutely enormous as he's put on a bit of weight since his retirement but he looks amazing – he's happy mooching about."

Kelly retired the following year and has been doing anything but mooching around, juggling a family, bloodstock and punditry, but in between that she has big plans for Tea For Two in the coming years.

"Mainly I want to take him hunting as he wants unadulterated fun jumping hedges," says Kelly. "He'll do dressage and showjumping but he finds it all a bit delicate. He won't be able to hunt forever but once he gets a bit older and mellow, he might try eventing. He's out in the field all the time – he's the king and the others are his subjects."

Read more from our Fans' Favourites series:

Silviniaco Conti: 'His jumping never let him down – he was absolutely class'

Secretariat: 'He was something else – I'm still waiting to see one as good'

Lady Bowthorpe: 'Even on Newmarket Heath, people know who she is'

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