Boss at his best in Brutal victory

GLEN Boss didn’t have to wind back the clock to win yesterday’s $3 million Doncaster Mile on Brutal because the bigtime rider had never lost his talents in the first place.

Boss, 49, won his seventh Doncaster Mile in front of 20,483 fans on the Team Hawkes-trained colt after answering a call to travel from his Singapore base to ride Brutal at 49.5kg.

“One of the owners said, ‘what’s the plan’ and Michael (Hawkes) said ‘Glen Boss’. We’ve just paid $8000 for him to come out. He came out first class and he’s going back business. I think he should be upgraded,” co-trainer Wayne Hawkes said.

Boss told the team straight away that barrier 21 wouldn’t stop him giving their horse every chance to win and he ensured the three-year-old a beautiful time of it on the speed.

He sat just outside the leader Dreamforce at the 800m point and that was when Boss knew he’d be hard to beat.

Dreamforce gave a good kick at the top of the straight but with 4kg less to carry Brutal went out after him and gobbled him up at the 100m to go away and win by a length, with the gallant topweight Hartnell in third.

Boss proved once again he could get the job done when it counted.

“My riding has never changed and I’m as fit as I’ve ever been throughout my life,” Boss said.

“I thought I had it at about the half mile (800m) because we went too slow and there was not going to be many with my weight that were going to come after me.

“We always knew we had the right horse”

“They’re (Doncaster) all great but to come back here to put in the grind and ride 49.5kg feels great. I could run a marathon right now, I feel that good.”

Boss moved to Singapore a few years ago when the rides started to dry up in Australia but he didn’t hold any grudges about that.

“I don’t get dirty on it because I was that young kid coming through who was pushing people out my age so it’s the nature of the game,” he said.

“I know, mentally and physically, that I’m as good as anyone. I miss these days and I miss these moments because that’s what I was born to do.”

Co-trainer Michael Hawkes said the Doncaster triumph was right up there with winning the Golden Slipper on Estijaab last year and Mossfun in 2014 and he was as emotional as the tears started to flow post-race.

“A few of the owners asked me if I was nervous and I wasn’t. I just wanted everything to go to plan and everything went 110 per cent to plan,” Hawkes said.

“There is just so many people to thank, these owners have been fantastic for us. They’ve let us do what we wanted to do. We always knew we had the right horse and that man Bossy, what a ride.”