Jimmie, STAR Racing Writer

Boy wonder should silence his doubters by landing tomorrow afternoon's Chairman's Trophy at 1500 metres after appearing to shorten close to home in last month's 1300-metre Eileen Cliggott Memorial.

The four-year-old colt ticked off his sixth consecutive victory in the Eileen Cliggott, taking down POTCHEEN, UPPA TUNE, CAMPESINO and PETE'SWILDONE in one fell swoop.

It was BOY WONDER"s first outing among the big boys, who have all returned for a piece of him, with Wayne DaCosta's trio of PERFECT NEIGHBOUR, HOVER CRAFT and ALL CORRECT joining the cast.

An additional four pounds or 55 kilos and going a furlong longer, are being touted as the silver bullet to stop BOY WONDER. However, Parsard's colt has a far better draw this time around, breaking widest in the eight-horse field with no speed to take him out of his comfort zone down the backstretch.

In the Eileen Cliggott, BOY WONDER might have carried 53.0 kilos but ran a big race after being slowly into stride from post-position two. So classy was BOY WONDER's run that it didn't even appear he was one of the slowest away and had recovered within a few strides to literally pull Omar Walker level with the leaders from an inside draw.

One of the country's top speedsters, CRUCIAL APPEAL, was brushed off the lead by BOY WONDER at the half mile and tried hard to get back on level terms entering the lane, so much so that he violently veered right when under pressure in the stretch run.

BOY WONDER set splits of 22.3, 45.1 and 1:10.4, no wonder POTCHEEN had to wait until things cooled down at the end before he came running on for second, a length and a half behind his stablemate. The others were obliterated.

With no CRUCIAL APPEAL around to keep him honest, BOY WONDER's lone rival up front should be CAMPESINO, whose surrender last time out gives him no chance against Parsard's star tomorrow.

A more relaxed BOY WONDER means he will be finishing stronger, ruling out any chance of a run-on POTCHEEN capitalising on a speed duel.

PERFECT NEIGHBOUR the big, bad wolf of DaCosta's trio, last raced on Boxing Day when he romped the 12-furlong Harry Jackson Memorial. He looked good at exercise last Saturday morning, 1:27.2 for a seven-furlong gallop.

However, with topweight of 57.0 kilos, coming off a three-month lay-up, to take on the most improved horse in training, will be his undoing.