Lil E. Tee (USA)
March 29, 1989 – March 18, 2009
At the Threshold (USA) x Eileen's Moment (USA), by For the Moment (USA)
Family 23-b
March 29, 1989 – March 18, 2009
At the Threshold (USA) x Eileen's Moment (USA), by For the Moment (USA)
Family 23-b
One of the American turf's great bargains, Lil E. Tee was a US$2,000 yearling who grew up to upset the much-vaunted Arazi in the 1992 Kentucky Derby (USA-G1). While his task was undoubtedly made easier by the scratch of eventual American Horse of the Year A.P. Indy from the race, he was a good, consistent runner whose record includes two Grade 2 wins as well as his Derby score. Unfortunately, he had fewer opportunities than he should have had to prove his worth as a runner after having his 3-year-old season cut short by a lung infection and ankle chips, and his 4-year-old season was likewise brief because of injury. He was useful but no more at stud.
Race record
13 starts, 7 wins, 4 seconds, 1 thirds, US$1,437,506
1992:
1993:
Assessments
Rated at 122 pounds on the Daily Racing Form’s Free Handicap for American 3-year-old males of 1992, 5 pounds below divisional champion and Horse of the Year A.P. Indy.
Rated at 121 pounds on the Daily Racing Form’s Free Handicap for American older males of 1993, 4 pounds below champion Bertrando.
As an individual
A 16-hand, muscular, scopy bay horse who ran with his head carried high, Lil E. Tee tended to loaf on making the lead but was game and determined if hooked. He was a playful horse around his barn and paddock and loved human attention. His racing career ended after he fractured an ankle in the summer of 1993.
As a stallion
According to records kept by The Jockey Club, Lil E. Tee sired 171 winners (51.5%) and 17 stakes winners (5.1%) from 332 named foals. The Blood-Horse credited Lil E. Tee with 20 stakes winners (6.0%). His best runner was multiple graded stakes winner Mula Gula.
Connections
Foaled at Pin Oak Lane Farm in Pennsylvania, Lil E. Tee was bred by Larry Littman and was sold for a price variously reported as US$2,000 or US$3,000 as a yearling after surviving major surgery for colic. He began his racing career in the silks of Al Jevremovic, who bought him for US$25,000 from the 1991 Ocala Breeders' Sales April 2-year-olds in training sale, and was trained by Michael T. Trevigno. After the colt broke his maiden by 11½ lengths in his second start, he was acquired privately for US$200,000 by W. Cal Partee, who moved him to the barn of Lynn Whiting. Partee sold a 75 percent interest in Lil E. Tee to Jim Plemmons when the colt was 4, and the horse entered stud in Kentucky in 1994 at Plemmons' Old Frankfort Stud. He was euthanized in March 2009 due to complications from surgery to correct an obstructed bowel.
Pedigree notes
Sired by Partee's multiple Grade 1 winner At the Threshold, Lil E. Tee is outcrossed through five generations. He is a half brother to four stakes-placed runners, among them Great Impulse (by Imperial Falcon), dam of Grade 3 winner Lil Personalitee (by Personal Flag), and Rising Moment (by Tri Jet), third dam of multiple Grade 3 winner Code Warrior. Lil E. Tee is also a half brother to My Big Sis (by El Raggaas), second dam of South African Group 3 winners Fromafar and Armando.
Lil E. Tee is out of Eileen's Moment, a daughter of For the Moment (a multiple Grade 1-winning full brother to 1975 American champion 2-year-old male Honest Pleasure) who failed to win or place in six tries. She is a half sister to juvenile stakes winner Cutter Sam (by Norcliffe) and to multiple listed stakes winner Thirty Zip (by Tri Jet), whose stakes-winning daughter Baby Zip (by Relaunch) was the 2005 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year after producing 2004 American Horse of the Year Ghostzapper (by Awesome Again) and 2000 Hopeful Stakes (USA-G1) winner City Zip (by Carson City), both successful sires. Baby Zip also produced Grade 3 winner City Wolf (by Giant's Causeway) and Getaway Girl (by Silver Deputy), dam of Grade 3 winner Northern Causeway (by Giant's Causeway) and second dam of Grade 2 winner Du Jour. Returning to Thirty Zip, she also produced stakes winner Lucette (by Dayjur), dam of Grade 3 winner Everyday Heroes (by Awesome Again), and Mattie Kate (by Major Impact), second dam of Grade 3 winners Touching Promise and Really Mr Greely.
Eileen's Moment and her siblings are out of the Hawaii mare Sailaway, who failed to win but is a half sister to Grade 3 winner Quick Fare (by Warfare), to juvenile stakes winner Quick Swoon (by Swoon's Son), and to Witty Gal (by Swoon's Son), dam of Group 3-placed multiple Italian stakes winner Warden Key (by Key to the Kingdom). Quick Wit, the dam of Sailaway, is by multiple Australian champion and 1948 American co-champion handicap male Shannon II and is a winning half sister to stakes winners Outfielder (by Shut Out) and Carol's Witty (by Admiral Vee; dam of stakes winners Hy Carol and Scott Alan to covers by Hy Frost). She is out of the Rhodes Scholar mare Witty, whose dam Native Gal (by Sir Gallahad III) is also the fourth dam of the great Affirmed.
Books and media
Fun facts
Last updated: May 27, 2022
Race record
13 starts, 7 wins, 4 seconds, 1 thirds, US$1,437,506
1992:
- Won Kentucky Derby (USA-G1, 10FD, Churchill Downs)
- Won Jim Beam Stakes (USA-G2, 9FD, Turfway Park)
- 2nd Arkansas Derby (USA-G2, 9FD, Oaklawn Park)
- 3rd Southwest Stakes (USA-L, 8FD, Oaklawn Park)
1993:
- Won Razorback Handicap (USA-G2, 8.5FD, Oaklawn Park)
- 2nd Oaklawn Handicap (USA-G1, 9FD, Oaklawn Park)
Assessments
Rated at 122 pounds on the Daily Racing Form’s Free Handicap for American 3-year-old males of 1992, 5 pounds below divisional champion and Horse of the Year A.P. Indy.
Rated at 121 pounds on the Daily Racing Form’s Free Handicap for American older males of 1993, 4 pounds below champion Bertrando.
As an individual
A 16-hand, muscular, scopy bay horse who ran with his head carried high, Lil E. Tee tended to loaf on making the lead but was game and determined if hooked. He was a playful horse around his barn and paddock and loved human attention. His racing career ended after he fractured an ankle in the summer of 1993.
As a stallion
According to records kept by The Jockey Club, Lil E. Tee sired 171 winners (51.5%) and 17 stakes winners (5.1%) from 332 named foals. The Blood-Horse credited Lil E. Tee with 20 stakes winners (6.0%). His best runner was multiple graded stakes winner Mula Gula.
Connections
Foaled at Pin Oak Lane Farm in Pennsylvania, Lil E. Tee was bred by Larry Littman and was sold for a price variously reported as US$2,000 or US$3,000 as a yearling after surviving major surgery for colic. He began his racing career in the silks of Al Jevremovic, who bought him for US$25,000 from the 1991 Ocala Breeders' Sales April 2-year-olds in training sale, and was trained by Michael T. Trevigno. After the colt broke his maiden by 11½ lengths in his second start, he was acquired privately for US$200,000 by W. Cal Partee, who moved him to the barn of Lynn Whiting. Partee sold a 75 percent interest in Lil E. Tee to Jim Plemmons when the colt was 4, and the horse entered stud in Kentucky in 1994 at Plemmons' Old Frankfort Stud. He was euthanized in March 2009 due to complications from surgery to correct an obstructed bowel.
Pedigree notes
Sired by Partee's multiple Grade 1 winner At the Threshold, Lil E. Tee is outcrossed through five generations. He is a half brother to four stakes-placed runners, among them Great Impulse (by Imperial Falcon), dam of Grade 3 winner Lil Personalitee (by Personal Flag), and Rising Moment (by Tri Jet), third dam of multiple Grade 3 winner Code Warrior. Lil E. Tee is also a half brother to My Big Sis (by El Raggaas), second dam of South African Group 3 winners Fromafar and Armando.
Lil E. Tee is out of Eileen's Moment, a daughter of For the Moment (a multiple Grade 1-winning full brother to 1975 American champion 2-year-old male Honest Pleasure) who failed to win or place in six tries. She is a half sister to juvenile stakes winner Cutter Sam (by Norcliffe) and to multiple listed stakes winner Thirty Zip (by Tri Jet), whose stakes-winning daughter Baby Zip (by Relaunch) was the 2005 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year after producing 2004 American Horse of the Year Ghostzapper (by Awesome Again) and 2000 Hopeful Stakes (USA-G1) winner City Zip (by Carson City), both successful sires. Baby Zip also produced Grade 3 winner City Wolf (by Giant's Causeway) and Getaway Girl (by Silver Deputy), dam of Grade 3 winner Northern Causeway (by Giant's Causeway) and second dam of Grade 2 winner Du Jour. Returning to Thirty Zip, she also produced stakes winner Lucette (by Dayjur), dam of Grade 3 winner Everyday Heroes (by Awesome Again), and Mattie Kate (by Major Impact), second dam of Grade 3 winners Touching Promise and Really Mr Greely.
Eileen's Moment and her siblings are out of the Hawaii mare Sailaway, who failed to win but is a half sister to Grade 3 winner Quick Fare (by Warfare), to juvenile stakes winner Quick Swoon (by Swoon's Son), and to Witty Gal (by Swoon's Son), dam of Group 3-placed multiple Italian stakes winner Warden Key (by Key to the Kingdom). Quick Wit, the dam of Sailaway, is by multiple Australian champion and 1948 American co-champion handicap male Shannon II and is a winning half sister to stakes winners Outfielder (by Shut Out) and Carol's Witty (by Admiral Vee; dam of stakes winners Hy Carol and Scott Alan to covers by Hy Frost). She is out of the Rhodes Scholar mare Witty, whose dam Native Gal (by Sir Gallahad III) is also the fourth dam of the great Affirmed.
Books and media
- Veteran sportswriter John Eisenberg wrote The Longest Shot, a book about Lil E. Tee's journey to the Classics. It was published by the University Press of Kentucky in 1996.
- Written by Einsenberg, “Lil E. Who?” is the 10th chapter in Greatest Kentucky Derby Upsets. Written by staff and contributors of The Blood-Horse, the book was published in 2007 by Blood-Horse Publications.
- Lil E.Tee is profiled in Chapter 12 of Avalyn Hunter's American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 (2003, Eclipse Press).
Fun facts
- Lil E. Tee's name derives from the popular 1982 movie E. T. the Extraterrestrial. All the horses that Littman bred included “Lil” (from his initials) somewhere in their names, and Lil. E. Tee was so gangly and ungainly as a foal that the rest of his name came from a fancied resemblance to the title character of the movie, a somewhat turtle-like alien.
- Larry Littman sold Lil E. T. privately for just US$2,000 (US$3,000 according to some reports) as a yearling in the belief that he would never be much good as a racehorse after having several feet of his intestines removed during emergency colic surgery. (The colt had already been turned down by the 1990 OBS yearling sale post-surgery because of his poor appearance.) The buyers were Littman's blacksmith, Mike Paramore, and Chuck Wieneke, a pinhooker and the owner of a small farm. Wieneke put the colt on a solid feeding program supplemented by vitamins, his wife exercised the animal regularly, and Lil E. Tee bloomed sufficiently to be accepted for the 1991 OBS April sale of 2-year-olds in training. According to sportswriter Dick Jerardi, Paramore thought he had “made a killing” when the partners got US$25,000 for the colt.
- Lil E. Tee was the only Kentucky Derby winner for Pat Day, the all-time leading rider at Churchill Downs with 2,481 races won and 34 riding titles (with the spring and fall meetings reckoned separately) at the Louisville oval.
- Lil E. Tee was the first Pennsylvania-bred to win the Kentucky Derby, and he made Cal Partee the first Arkansas-based owner to win the race.
- In an article published June 4, 2012, in the Magnolia Reporter (www.magnoliareporter.com), Rex Nelson recounted that Partee was at a pre-Kentucky Derby winner with Lynn Whiting, who told him during the course of the dinner conversation that he had dreamed the previous night that Partee had eaten mushrooms and Lil E. Tee had then won the Kentucky Derby. Partee hated mushrooms, but according to his son, took a look at a plate of mushrooms on the table and said, “Pass me those d--- things down here.”
Last updated: May 27, 2022