There are only two fillies in history that have won the Golden Slipper-Thousand Guineas double, a task as stiff as it is prestigious. One of them is Miss Finland (Redoute’s Choice), who pulled it off in 2006, and the other is the lightning-quick, Tommy Smith-trained Toy Show.
It was 1975 when Toy Show managed it, bursting her way into the limelight in a Golden Slipper that featured her stablemate, Denise’s Joy (Seventh Hussar {Fr}), in second place. Toy Show had debuted only a month before in a Canterbury maiden, making a mess of the field by 5l, and she picked up the Magic Night S. on her way through.
Toy Show
That 1975 Slipper was a memorable one for her jockey, Kevin Langby. He did as he was told by ‘TJ’, getting on the speed and keeping on. However, he had barrier 14, the widest draw, aboard Toy Show and the filly used every amount of pluck to overcome it.
“She was still too good for them,” Langby said years later. “If she didn’t have back problems, she could have been anything.”
The bay Toy Show was bred in 1972 by the master of Stockwell Stud, Ken Cox. Cox had opened his farm at Digger’s Rest in 1958 and, in the winter of 1966, he imported a barrel-bodied, somewhat incorrect chestnut stallion called Showdown (GB).
The horse was a wild success, siring the likes of Slipper winner Tontonan, Derby winner Silver Sharpe, Oaks winner Show Ego and Dual Choice, who won everything. Showdown’s legacy was instant and long-lasting and, coupled with the Stockwell mare Toyland (Ire) (Parthia {GB}), he got Toy Show.
Ken Cox | Image courtesy of Kings Of The Turf website
The filly was kept by Cox and, for the entirety of her career, she was raced by the Stockwell master in his cerise silks and yellow cap. All told, she won eight races for him from 33 starts, the bulk of her brilliance occurring in her two- and 3-year-old seasons.
Toy Show won the AJC Sires’ Produce S., Ascot Vale S. (Edward Manifold S.), Newmarket H. and William Reid S. In her 1975 Guineas win, she again led home Denise’s Joy, and she was second to How Now (NZ) (In The Purple {Fr}) in the Wakeful S. that year.
Toy Show was slick enough to be used up early in her races and still be in front when it mattered, and it was a huge pity when injury and unsoundness began to plague her as an older horse. She retired to Stockwell Stud but, as brilliant as she had been as a racehorse, she wasn’t a success as a breeder.
When Showdown died at Stockwell Stud in 1985, it spelled the start of the end for the Cox family’s farm. Stockwell was eventually sold, and Toy Show was sent to Blandford Lodge in New Zealand in July 1987. At that operation’s dispersal in 1992, she was bought for NZ$27,500 by Davilora Lodge's Lorraine Smith and David Thomas, and she returned to Victoria.
Showdown at Stockwell Stud | Image courtesy Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria
Toy Show died on July 11, 1997, at the age of 24. She left no stakes winners, but it wasn’t the end of her line.
Her granddaughter, Extra Bubbly (Bellotto {USA}), foaled the G2 Caulfield Autumn Classic winner Extra Zero (Danzero), as well as the G3 Adrian Knox winner Operetta Lass (Singspiel {Ire}), who lives at Twin Hills Stud to this day.
