Bosson sweats it in dash for cash
Jockey goes out of comfort zone to ride top filly Avantage
You probably missed it. When Opie Bosson was taking the saddle off fine filly Melody Belle after a runaway win in the opening race on Ellerslie’s glittering Saturday night he dry retched. The second one was slightly less than dry.
This is not a story to gross you out, it’s to emphasise what some jockeys endure to ride correct weights.
Go back five minutes. Bosson was walking around behind the barriers on Melody Belle and was interviewed on horseback by his wife of a few weeks, Trackside Television’s Emily Bosson.
“How are you feeling Opie?” and we knew we were about to get more than ‘how do you think Melody Belle will go’, which, at $1.90, would have been a pointless question.
“Well, I’m not going to lie to you, [you’re not meant to lie to your wife], I’m not great. And I’ve still got more weight to take off for the one in the last [Avantage in the Karaka Million].” The up-chuck in the birdcage was a symptom of severe dehydration and Bosson still had more sweating to do to make Avantage’s 54.5kg, which he didn’t quite manage and rode half a kilo over at 55kg, still well under his comfort zone.
Right here many insiders will be scoffing saying: “Yeah, but Opie doesn’t waste properly.” No, he doesn’t, he more embraces the theory of be yourself, everyone else is taken. The fact is, he can’t waste and still ride with the same brilliance that makes him our best jockey by, in racing terms, several lengths.
We’ve all seen jockeys wasted from food and fluid deprivation to the point their eyes are so sunken they go out and slaughter a horse. Making split second decisions on 550kg of horseflesh does not sit well alongside zero levels of fluid and blood sugar.
Some jockeys can waste better than others with dollar returns having influence. Probably the greatest ever, Lester Piggott, survived for more than two decades on little more than champagne and cigars, almost always scoffing at food.
Winx’s Sydney rider Hugh Bow- man, similarly brilliant at Ellerslie on Saturday, will tell you his only alcohol intake is a few beers after a Saturday meeting, but that he NEVER alters his meagre food intake. Melbourne’s Brad Rawiller, like Bowman tall for a jockey, drives a car fitted out as a sauna to lose weight on the trip to the races.
Suspended jockey Jason Waddell was our guest selector for Ellerslie in the Weekend Herald. For the Karaka Million he said: “Biggest push for me in this race is Opie choosing Avantage and committing to ride 54.5kg . . .”. Bosson rode a picture perfect race on Melody Belle in the first, even though it was a cakewalk and he said later: “I was only a passenger.” In the first million dollar race, the Karaka Million 3YO Classic, he managed to overcome Embellish’s wide barrier, present him to the front at the right time in the home straight only to be run down by a phenomenal finishing burst from Scott Base.
You can only imagine how Bosson must have been feeling when legged aboard Avantage with so much depending on him. The Te Akau operation had missed the first million dollar event with Embellish and with the Karaka sale starting 22 hours later, victory was going to be everything as a promotional tool for his bosses.
Lester Piggott could not have ridden the filly better. Object achieved.
Yes, be yourself, everyone else is taken.
Congratulations.