Roy Chillemi grinning to the finish line

By Jordan Gerrans

Boasting one of the greatest resumes in the history of North Queensland racing, Tolga trainer Roy Chillemi has declared he has nothing left to prove as his sparkling career edges closer to retirement.

Set to turn 75 years of age later this year, Chillemi has no set date when he will finish up his lengthy training tenure but says his body will tell him when it is time to pull up stumps.

He has spoken with his long-time main stable owner Tom Hedley about slowing down a few times but the Chillemi team and their famous orange silks keep powering on.

While the Atherton Tablelands-based horseman will not have a Cup runner on Saturday at Cannon Park, he will have a sizeable group of horses entered across the program, headlined by Missile Thunder in the Lightning Handicap.

He has developed a remarkable career that has yielded almost 40 premierships at Cairns and Townsville as well as being the leading provincial trainer in the Sunshine State on five occasions.

“I have absolutely no goals – none,” Chillemi said when asked of the coming years.

“I have had a ball and had my share of stardom through the years. I do not want to prove nothing – I do not want to do nothing – I just want to race horses and have a bit of fun.

“I just want to enjoy racing if I can and enjoy the good parts.

“There will be bad parts of racing but there is no point doing your head in or getting angry – it is best to move on.”

As well as his plethora of training premierships, Chillemi has won almost every Cup or sprint races there is across North Queensland.

He also unearthed eventual Stradbroke Handicap-winning galloper Tyzone at the start of the popular gallopers career.

Racing And Sports’ statistics have Chillemi training 1,415 winners throughout his career as well as having black-type place getters.

At his peak he may have got angry at a poor ride from one of jockeys or if one of his horses got held up at a key stage in a race.

But, these days, he says it is important to just move on mentally.

The legendary Chillemi is confident he still has a few good years left in him but notes he will retire gracefully when he feels his body physically cannot handle horses any more.

“Roy is well respected in the community, he gets on with everyone,” Cairns Jockey Club General Manager Cameron Riches said.

“He is one of those trainers that has won everything, he has won almost every Cup or plate that there is to win in North Queensland.”

Chillemi has taken some time to ‘smell the roses’ in recent years as well.

Not long ago, he took his family on a lengthy holiday to Italy which he declared will be a moment in his life he will treasure forever.

Former brilliant juvenile Missile Thunder will carry the team’s feature hopes on Saturday in the speedy Lightning over 950 metres.

The gelding was unbeaten in his first six starts as a two-year-old but has battled with injury concerns in recent times.

Missile Thunder has only won twice since June of 2022 but he has run inside the top four in each of his last three starts.

“It will be a bit short for him but no doubt he will be finishing his race off very strongly,” the veteran horseman said of Missile Thunder’s 950 metre assignment.

“He ran second at Townsville two starts back over 1200 metres in a race they ran very fast time in.

“He drew a wide barrier in that race and was wide throughout and he was only beaten a neck.

“His run was good on that day and no doubt he is looking for more than 950 metres that he will face on Saturday.

“I tried to get him into the Newmarket last week but he was an emergency, so this is the only other option for him if I want to race him over carnival.”

Chillemi was hopeful of Missile Thunder getting a run in last Saturday’s FNQ feature event, the Cairns Newmarket over 1400 metres.

The veteran trainer almost won the race without Missile Thunder as stable mate Speed Legend ran a close second to winner Montenegro Man.

With his new refreshed attitude, Chillemi was not kicking stones post-race, he was instead looking ahead to the Amateurs carnival next month with Speed Legend.

The Amateur Sprint should be a perfect race for Speed Legend, Missile Thunder and Go Getaboy (who finished fifth in the Newmarket).

“He was held up twice and was only beaten half a head, without a shadow of a doubt he should have won the race but we have to be happy with second,” the master trainer said of Speed Legend’s effort last Saturday.

“The horse put in, the rider put in and I think he was trained well on the day, just circumstances that happened just meant we ended up second.

“This is our time of year when our feature races are on, there is no doubt that if the horse performs well then you want to have them back there again.

“Both the Newmarket runners will feature at the Cairns Amateurs.”

Chillemi is also hopeful Valenki will be competitive in the Benchmark 58 Handicap over 1500 metres on Saturday at Cannon Park.

“He has been running good races,” the Tolga-based conditioner said.

“He has run well a few times at Townsville without winning.

“The horse is well and I think he is reaching to the stage where he is getting to his peak and hopefully he can perform well on Saturday. The horse worked well on Tuesday morning – the rider liked his work – and hopefully he will do the job.”