Three time winning jockey Glen Boss has selected Fiorente as his Melbourne Cup tip as he prepares to watch Australia’s most famous race from the Flemington grandstand today.
Glen Boss picks Fiorente as his Melbourne Cup selection. Photo by Taron Clarke.
Boss ended up without a mount in the Group 1 $6m Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m) after his long standing Melbourne Cup ride Puissance De Lune stumbled at the last hurdle when he pulled lame after finishing twelfth to Shamus Award in the Group 1 $3m Sportingbet Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley on October 26.
Trainer David Hayes then offered Boss the mount on Jet Away but first he had to qualify by winning the Group 1 $1m Longines Mackinnon Stakes (2000m) at Flemington last Saturday.
But Jet Away failed to salute leaving Boss to commentate on the famous race that he won three years in a row from 2003 to 2005 on the great mare Makybe Diva.
From a handful of chances Boss is giving Gai Waterhouse confidence of winning her first Melbourne Cup with last year’s runner up Fiorente ticking all the right boxes.
“I reckon Fawkner, Seville, Hawkspur, Verema and Simenon are all there, on the fringe, but this should be Fiorente’s Cup,” Boss wrote in his Herald Sun column today.
“These days we rate chances in any race, from a Melbourne Cup to a maiden, by how many boxes they tick.
“Fiorente ticks them all.
“This horse’s campaign has been an obsession for Gai Waterhouse.
“He’s had six runs for Gai and there have been no negatives in any of them.”
Waterhouse kicked off Fiorente’s Melbourne Cup campaign back in August with the imported six year old running a handy sixth to Atlantic Jewel in the Group 1 $350,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield.
Fiorente then came out and won the Group 2 $300,000 Dato’ Tan Chin Nam Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley on September 14 before running fourth to Happy Trails in the Group 1 $500,000 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on October 5.
At his final Melbourne Cup lead up run Fiorente ran a slashing third to in the Cox Plate and cemented his position as the number one tip for the Melbourne Cup as well as maintaining his place at the top of the market order and is currently the $7.50 favourite.
“He was super in the Turnbull – deadset rattled home and should have won – and was super again in the Cox Plate,” Boss wrote.
“All this talk about his “gut-buster” in the Cox Plate has me beat.
“It wasn’t a hard-run Cox Plate. Blake Shinn got across pretty easily and they ran pretty leisurely middle splits.”
I’m with Gai when she says it was just a great hit out for the Cup – a perfect “pipe-opener”.
“He’s had the perfect preparation, has a great barrier and a great jockey, Damien Oliver.
“It’s his race to lose.
“I reckon it’s roughly 50-50, the raiders versus the locals, but I’m tipping a local result.
Leading Sydney jockey Nash Rawiller was Fiorente’s rider at his first three Spring Carnival starts but lost rides in the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cups to Damien Oliver.
After being booked for the Cox Plate, Oliver was subsequently suspended for careless riding allowing Blake Shinn to have a one off ride on Fiorente at Moonee Valley.
The latest Melbourne Cup market order sees Fiorente the $7.50 favourite ahead of the Luca Cumani trained Mount Athos at $10.
Caulfield Cup runner up Dandino remains solid at $12 with the highly rated import Sea Moon at $14 , French mare Verema at $16 alongside of Fawkner.
