By Tim Wood, Spirit of the Turf
To truly appreciate the story of Tennessee Lad, a talented sprinter trained at Bendigo by Kym Hann, you first have to learn a little about his pedigree. Out of a Zabeel mare named Soroya, Tennessee Lad is the son of Potter, a stallion who retired from racing in 2007 with only a very modest racetrack record. But whilst on the surface he may not seem like the type to have success in the breeding barn, according to his owner Jo Horton, you quickly begin to realise Potter’s potential as a sire when you take the time to dig a little deeper. “He is by a three quarter to Fappiano and has a bottom line that is to die for – Bletchingly, Whiskey Road and Vain” she explained. “His pedigree ticks sprint, ticks middle distance and ticks sound. Plus, he has a beautiful temperament and is very trainable. He is just a lovely horse in every which way”. Perhaps it is then not surprising to find out that his first foal, the now six year old Tennessee Lad, has been a success story. A winner of seven races, the sprinter has earned just shy of $100,000 in prize money from his 17 career starts.
Tennessee Lad was born in December 2008, just two months before the Black Saturday bushfires raged throughout Victoria. These fires would nearly claim the life of his sire, Potter, who was living on Jo Horton’s farm in Whittlesea at the time. “I got my son, my kelpie and him (Potter) out before I went back to fight the fires” Horton recalled. Whilst Potter survived the ordeal, his stud career would be severely impacted on by the events of that day. The fences on Horton’s property were destroyed by the fires, making it difficult for her to bring in outside mares which seriously limited his breeding opportunities. When Horton had first found Potter a year or so earlier, he had only recently retired from racing and was about to begin a new life as a show horse. After beginning his racing career with Gerald Ryan, he enjoyed early racetrack success with wins at Doomben and Eagle Farm. But this early promise soon faded, and after changing stables on several occasions, his racing career ended in January 2007 with a fifth placing at Port Lincoln. Potter might have been completely lost to the industry had it not been for Horton, who shortly after found the horse and identified his ability as a sire. It was therefore fitting that when Potter’s first foal had his first win (Tennessee Lad won his maiden at Kilmore in 2013) Horton was on track to witness the occasion.
Since winning that maiden in April 2013, the career of Tennessee Lad has continued to blossom. His last prep was particularly impressive – the sprinter yielded five wins from just eight starts, four of those coming on heavy tracks. “I think it was more or less just placing him properly and the wet tracks were a bonus” trainer Kym Hann said. “His record last prep probably reads better than it looks because he just came through the grades. He went from a 0-58 to a BM78. He wasn’t consistently doing it in BM78 races”. After winning at Cranbourne in September last year, Tennessee Lad was given a good six month break in the paddock over summer, before returning to racing at Seymour on Thursday. He finished sixth in a Benchmark 78 over 1000 metres, an effort that pleased Hann considering he was first up from a long break. “It was a good run and he’s had a bit of a blow” he said after the race. “Today is probably the strongest race he has been in, as it’s getting harder to place him because of his rating. He’s probably looking for 1200 metres and for the tracks to get a bit softer, but you’ve got to start somewhere”.Whilst everything is going well both on and off the track for Tennessee Lad these days, this wasn’t always the case. “He is a lovely horse now and a bit of a family pet, but we have been through some tough times with him” Hann said. “He was a bit of a problem horse when he was younger. He took about 12 months to break in and a few times we almost gave up on him. But he has just come around with age. I guess that’s why he hasn’t had many starts – he’s been a late maturer”. This lack of maturity forms part of the reason why Hann avoided racing the horse in metropolitan class last prep, despite his good form. He resisted the temptation to race him in town, preferring to wait until his horse was ready to step up. “I like to leave my horses in their right class and see if you can get a few more wins out of them” Hann said. “The reality is, he has still been racing in showcase races for $30,000. If I had have been going to midweek metro races, it would have been for similar sort of money anyway”.
Based in Bendigo, Hann was born in South Australia and has only moved across the border in the past few years. “I started training in Port Lincoln, but I’m originally from Victor Harbour” he explained. “As a kid, I did pony club and show jumping and had always been around horses”. He got his start in the racing industry when trainer Jenny Gow-Whyte, who at that time was training at Hindmarsh Island, needed a track rider at very short notice. “I went to work for her because she had broken her leg and couldn’t ride” he explained. “That’s how it all started and I have been in it ever since”. His next move was working for Ross Lyons, a man that would soon become an important mentor. “Ross basically taught me everything I know” he said. “I didn’t think about training on my own until I moved to Port Lincoln and was working with Ross Lyons. I got some stables and gave it a go. I was training there for two years and then I went to Sydney and worked for Peter Snowden at Darley for 18 months before I moved to Bendigo”.
Hann’s move to Bendigo was heavily influenced by Lyons and so it understandably gave him great pleasure to train a winner for his mentor last weekend. “He is a good mate of mine” Hann said. “I moved here to Bendigo with him (Lyons) to start with, so to train a winner for him the other day at Kerang (with first starter Inner Strength) was good”. Hann’s Bendigo stable has quickly grown in numbers and he is enjoying plenty of success with a solid strike rate. “I’ve got a lot of nice young horses coming through and I think we have had 11 winners from about 45 runners this year so everything is flying” he said. He is also hoping that Tennessee Lad can add to this tally over winter, particularly if we get some wet weather. “I’d like to push him into town once the tracks get softer and if I can find a suitable race for him” he said. “He has only ever missed once on a heavy track and he had excuses that day. The 1200 metres is probably his best go, but we might try to stretch him out to 1400 metres this time in as well. We’ll just see how he comes along”. Regardless of what happens next, Hann will be in no rush. After all, it was his patient approach with the horse, particularly in those early days, that has helped make Tennessee Lad into the success story he is today.