Boss finally lands Cup mount
Glen Boss will be hoping luck does not desert him again having picked up the ride on Sir Lucan in the Melbourne Cup.
Sir Lucan is currently number 24 in the Order of Entry for the Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington next Tuesday.
The safety limit for the Melbourne Cup is 24.
Boss had originally been booked to ride Cup favourite Incentivise through the spring but lost the ride to Brett Prebble when he was turned around back to Sydney while undertaking quarantine in the Northern Territory ahead of coming to Melbourne.
He watched last Saturday's Cox Plate in the jockeys' room when his mount Sir Dragonet was euthanised after fracturing a leg in a track gallop at The Valley the previous week.
And only hours after being announced as the rider of Young Werther in the Melbourne Cup on Monday, that horse was withdrawn after a problem was found in the gelding's mandatory Standing CT scan.
Boss, who teamed with Makybe Diva to win three Melbourne Cups, was given the nod to partner Sir Lucan, a younger brother to Sir Dragonet, on Tuesday.
In the care of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Sir Lucan is being trained for the Melbourne Cup from the quarantine centre at Werribee.
A northern hemisphere three-year-old, Waterhouse said Sir Lucan was immature, but a lovely horse.
"It would be great if he gets into the race and it would be lovely for all the people that bought into him," Waterhouse said.
"He's so light on his feet, he's like poetry. He's a lovely horse.
"Even if it happens not to be the Melbourne Cup this year, he will certainly be a horse punters can follow next year."
The Waterhouse and Bott stable also has Knight's Order in the Melbourne Cup who will run in the Hotham Handicap (2500m) at Flemington on Saturday in a bid to strike winning form again.
Knights Order was a last start ninth to Tralee Rose in the Geelong Cup (2400m) last week but going back to the winter did win the Brisbane Cup (3200m) at Eagle Farm.
"He is fruit out of season, but he is racing at a distance that will compliment him going into the Cup on Saturday," Waterhouse said.
"It's an old fashioned, traditional way of going into it."
