A nine-win lead in the Melbourne jockeys’ championship, a book of seven good rides at Caulfield on Saturday and an uncanny knack for riding a wave of confidence has Glen Boss in a frame of mind where anything can happen.
Surprisingly for a jockey who has won most of Australia’s major races, including three Melbourne Cups, two Cox Plates and a pair of Golden Slippers, Boss has never won a jockey’s title.
And while the season still has seven months to run, he’d rather be nine in front than nine behind.
“It’s a good place to be, I suppose,” Boss said after landing a winning treble at Flemington on New Year’s Day.
“The guys riding for the big stables will have the advantage in the end, but you never know.”
While Boss isn’t tied to any stable, a couple of the strongest in Melbourne have sought him out for the Caulfield meeting.
Boss has rides for five trainers, including Mick Price, Anthony Freedman and Clinton McDonald with three of his mounts favourites for their respective races.
Boss’s best on paper is the Freedman-trained Hazard in the Thomas North Handicap (1400m).
The most significant aspect of Hazard’s form is that his only two wins from five starts have been on the Geelong synthetic track.
But he has finished a close second to the well-performed Motorised on turf at Sale and his most recent effort to win at Geelong is clearly the best of his career.
Boss also rides the favourite Devil Woman for Colin and Cindy Alderson in the Vobis Gold Carat, a $150,000 race that has drawn only six runners, five of whom are unraced.
The experienced one is Boss’s mount, which is the most compelling reason for her to head the betting.
His other well-fancied runner is Mandla in the Robert Taranto Handicap (1100m).
Mandla again meets his last-start conqueror Colicchio but with a small pull in the weights on that run in which he covered extra ground and went down by a half length.
But perhaps Boss’s best prospects of at least retaining his premiership lead is that his nearest rival Luke Nolen isn’t riding at the meeting.
