Tenille the lone ranger with in-form Beaudesert stable

By Jordan Gerrans

After working for a crop of astute trainers in recent years, Beaudesert’s Tenille Ranger feels a more hands-on approach with her own gallopers is finally paying dividends on the track.

The 49-year-old Ranger has worked as a foreman for Greg Hickman and Lee Freedman at earlier points in her time in the racing game.

Ranger – who is also an equine nurse – has long held her own training licence but has often been preoccupied with her boss' team of gallopers to focus on lifting her own numbers.

No longer working for any other trainers, Ranger’s small team has been up in lights in recent weeks as she has prepared her first two winners since late 2021.

Cantankerous mare Enuff Pills has quickly put together two victories in a line to give the Ranger barn some momentum.

“I am always working for someone else and at the moment, for the first time in a long time, I am just doing my own horses,” Ranger said.

“It is starting to work, being hands-on every day and not rushing around to get off to work or do other things.

“It has been a really big help as I can do more with my horses on the ground and monitor everything with their health and fitness.

“I did have a couple in work when I was with Lee but you don’t have the time to watch your own horses work every day, which is key.”

Enuff Pills – a four-year-old daughter of Rich Enuff – could not have been much more impressive in her last two starts.

She broke through for her maiden triumph across the border at Coffs Harbour earlier this month with a dominant victory before following that up with another smart performance at Ipswich last Sunday.

On both occasions she won by more than two lengths after running on the speed.

Ranger believes racing on top of the ground has been crucial for the speedy mare after she started her career in Victoria for the Ken and Kasey Keys barn.

It is fair to say that Enuff Pills has been a handful for the Keys and Ranger teams to manage over her career but the Beaudesert conditioner believes they are finally on top of her attitude.

“She came to me from the Keys’ in Victoria and we have basically changed her whole life,” she said.

“She doesn’t go into a box during the day – she goes into a big paddock – and we keep her in the same routine every day to do everything right by her in regard to how she wants things done.

“We do everything she wants – we work for her. I have never had a tougher horse in all my time in racing.

“She is very, very hard work as a horse – she can be a horrible animal at times – so we have worked out that is how she is so we just leave her alone.

“We just need to keep her happy. We have backed off a bit of her work and replaced it with a lot more swimming as she is rock-hard fit.”

Enuff Pills was a $3,000 purchase for the hobby trainer.

She stays in close contact with the Keys’ who have praised Ranger for her efforts with the mare and are glad to see her racing well in the Sunshine State.

After nabbing a Class 1 Plate at her most recent performance, Enuff Pills is likely to head back to Ipswich over 800 metres in a Benchmark 62 event in the coming weeks.

Ranger prepares a team of four at Beaudesert and is based not far from the local club.

She looked after the Hickman-trained Eleven Eleven during his northern campaigns, including targeting the Gold Coast Magic Millions 3YO Guineas in 2020. 

After working for Freedman for a couple of years, Ranger has recently picked up a promising All Too Hard filly from the champion conditioner that she is hopeful can be competitive in Queensland.

The stable also had maiden galloper Victory Melody win a trial at Beaudesert earlier this month as the gelding nears his first-up run for the year, which will come at Ipswich on Wednesday.

“He is going super,” Ranger said.

“He galloped on Thursday morning and that was one of the nicest pieces’ of work I have ever seen him do. Last prep the horse just got injury after injury and viruses – you name it.

“It was one thing after another for his first racing prep. Hopefully touch wood he has all those issues behind him.”