Boss provides insider’s guide to a winning ride
GLENN Boss (pictured) – who rode Makybe Diva in her Melbourne Cup hat-trick from 2003-05 – leads us through the 3200m to glory at Flemington.
1. THE START
“It’s a nice, long 1000m straight gallop until the horses go past the winning post for the first time and hit that first bend. It’s a long run (to the first turn) but a lot happens and it comes up really quick so your race can be won and lost quickly,” Boss said. “You have got to be decisive with your moves and commit one way or the other.”
2. TURN OUT OF THE STRAIGHT THE FIRST TIME
This is the part of the race where a jockey has hopefully found the perfect spot to settle in the run as they travel up another long, straight part of the track. It’s also the point where they may know already if their race is over. “It’s all about getting your horse to completely relax as much as possible while also assessing the speed,” Boss said. “You’ve got the best part of 2000m still to go at this point. If you’re pulling at this point, you’re in trouble because that’s just energy that’s being expelled.”
3. THE 1400M
“You’re still trying to be relaxed while being aware of what’s starting to happen,” Boss said. “You’ll be looking for horses that you don’t think are good enough and you don’t want to be behind them because they’ll be coming back. This is the point where you start to get
4. HOME TURN
“The race really starts a bit before here at the 800m. This is the point when you need rhythm and really need to be flowing,” Boss said. “You’ll have a feeling (if the horse is a chance) because what happens is they start to come up underneath you. When you ask for them, they’ll feel that. It’s like revving a car.”
5. THE CLOCKTOWER
This landmark is about 180m from the winning post and is traditionally thought of as a guide for jockeys about to fully unleash their horse and while that might be true in shorter races, it’s not in the Melbourne Cup. “It’s a bit of a myth, that old saying of ‘don’t move until the clocktower’. If you did that, you’d be pulled into the stewards’ room,” Boss said.
6. THE FINISH
“As a jockey you want to win one, and it was an amazing feeling. Then in the second one I was thinking, ‘this is going somewhere we haven’t been before’,” Boss said. “When I won the third one on her, it was off the Richter scale. This is like winning a gold medal at the Olympics. It’s your whole life’s work and for a jockey it is as big as what we say.”