It wasn’t the fairy tale finish the racing community was hoping for, but Glen Boss has said an emotional goodbye to the sport on Saturday afternoon.
Piloting Spanish Mission for trainer Peter Moody and sent out as a $1.35 favourite in the Zipping Classic at Caulfield, Boss found a nice trailing position during the run, however the slow tempo didn’t suit the Colt as he laboured home into fourth.
Fellow jockeys waited and cheered Boss as he returned to the mounting yard, and the visibly emotional 52-year-old saluted the crowd for the last time as a professional jockey.
Speaking to Racing.com after the race, Boss said he went out the way he had hoped for, despite coming up short.
“That Colt gave me a wonderful ride throughout the race… once I got to the 500 metre mark I asked him to come up underneath me and I went, ‘Ah, he’s not quite there’, but to his credit, he tried very hard,” he said.
“What a fitting way to go out, I gave that horse every possible chance, I got in the zone, I felt good, and like I said the result wasn’t going to define my career.
“Just being here today and being in front of this Melbourne crowd and having my family here, I want to thank everybody, it’s been a wonderful journey.
“When you go through the scales, the good times far outweigh the bad times, they’re not even insignificant.
“I feel wonderful honestly, I went out the way I wanted to go out, giving a good horse a good ride, I can’t ask for anymore.”
The champion rider has ridden 90 Group 1 winners and famously won three consecutive Melbourne Cups aboard Makybe Diva in the early 2000s.
It wasn't the perfect ending but congratulations on a fantastic career, @boss_glen. ❤ pic.twitter.com/TjpQp7jbbw
— Racing.com (@Racing) November 27, 2021