Boss may be key to Tom Melbourne bid
IT’S a combination which has yielded a 50 per cent winning strike rate with a horse considered a “non-winner” and the Chris Waller stable is hopeful Glen Boss can once again bring out the best in Tom Melbourne in Saturday’s Epsom.
Some punters believe Tom Melbourne simply doesn’t want to win after he has finished second at his three starts under Waller to go with a run of losses with the Freedman stable before that.
Tom Melbourne, who still has a 24 per cent overall winning strike rate, hasn’t won since romping home in the Albury Gold Cup on March 18 last year but Boss was aboard that day.
The champion jockey was also aboard for two of his other four wins, making that three wins for Boss on Tom Melbourne from just six rides.
Boss returns from Singapore to reunite with Tom Melbourne in the Epsom and the Waller stable is hopeful they can land a blow in the $1 million race.
“Hopefully Glen Boss will see a huge turnaround in his characteristics on Saturday,” Chris Waller’s racing manager Charlie Duckworth said.
“He came to us with a lot of gear and they tried anything to tame the beast, as it were.
“Chris thought we would bring it back to basics and take everything off and let him be a horse.
“We’ve taken him to the beach, which has been his recovery from his work, and it helps him mentally to get into a good space.
“From the (wide) barrier we will have to ride him conservatively anyway and I think had he not fired up in that first 200m of his previous start he would have near enough won anyway.
“He probably just burnt a few too many carrots early. So providing he switches off, the mile won’t be an issue and he will run home strong.”
Tom Melbourne is one of four runners for Waller in the rich race as he attempts to claim his fourth Epsom in the past five years.
Punters are happy to put their faith in favourite Happy Clapper to win the Epsom despite his 57kg impost. Racing To Win (2006) and Winx (2015) are the only Epsom winners to shoulder 57kg this century but Happy Clapper has firmed from $4 to $3 since drawing barrier four.
“Happy Clapper is the most popular (runner) and is holding around five times the amount of money than anything else in the early stages of betting,” the TAB’s Andrew Georgiou said. “Red Excitement and Snitzson have had specking at odds.”
Red Excitement’s jockey Brenton Avdulla described it as a “winnable Epsom” for his mount and found small chinks in both Happy Clapper and second favourite Egg Tart.
“They are the two in-form horses and Happy Clapper was enormous the other day,” he said. “But he has to back up another peak performance and Egg Tart is second-up off a run off a fast tempo.”
PROVIDING HE SWITCHES OFF, THE MILE WON’T BE AN ISSUE AND HE WILL RUN HOME STRONG CHARLIE DUCKWORTH