Tennessee Boy defies the doubters again
TENNESSEE Boy, he keeps being overlooked and then defying the doubters.
It was the case at Cluden Park on Northern Classic QTIS 2YO Plate day and it was more of the same yesterday at Cairns Jockey Club in the Magic Millions Daintree 3YO Guineas QTIS Handicap (1250m).
The market and punters keep overlooking the emerging Roy Chillemi gelding and he has made them pay twice now in big races.
That day in Townsville, it was stablemate Higher Realm who was all the rage, and yesterday at Cannon Park, it was Derulo, shooting for five in a row, who was all that everyone wanted to talk about.
But, on both occasions, it was Tennessee Boy who took the prize and showed exactly why he was Horse of the Year at Townsville last season.
“He defies all odds, he is just a trier, he tries his heart out,” Chillemi said of Tennessee Boy.
Rodney Miller’s Derulo looked the winner halfway down the straight in the $35,000 feature yesterday before Tennessee Boy, by Spill The Beans from Tennessee Red, gobbled him up in the concluding stages.
“He does a lot wrong in his races but when he saw daylight and straightened up in the straight, he got exactly where he wanted to and you could see he wanted to beat the other horse,” Chillemi said.
“Winning horse of the year at Townsville, that speaks for itself, there is a lot of good horses in the north.”
The brown gelding is likely to now head for a spell and comeback in the middle of 2021, Chillemi says.
Tennessee Boy started his career with a stylish win in the Pallarenda Stakes and has now added two more feature races to his resumé. He has now won six career races from just 10 starts and has never finished outside the placings.
The previously undefeated Derulo was made to work double time in the run by Twurkenitup, trained by Stefanie Horner, and ducked in near the fence in the straight, before Tennessee Boy and Wanderson D’Avila finished over the top.
Clever Hunter for Cairns trainer Trevor Rowe rounded out the top three in the Guineas.