A hyped up Glen Boss still has great faith in Melbourne Cup favourite Puissance De Lune as he heads for a showdown with officialdom after being fined $2000 for a pre-post celebration on Mr O’Ceirin at Caulfield on Saturday.
Glen Boss was fined $2000 for standing high in the irons on Mr O'Ceirin at Caulfield. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.
Boss was handed the substantial fine and threatened with suspension if he repeats the celebrations after standing high in the irons well before the finish post as Mr O’Ceirin cruised to an easy win in the Group 3 $150,000 D’Urban Naturalism Stakes (2000m) to qualify for the Group 1 $2.65m BMW Caulfield Cup (2400m) at Caulfield on October 19.
Boss was happy with the performance of Puissance De Lune to finish seventh to It’s A Dundeel and Atlantic Jewel in the Group 1 $400,000 Hyland Race Colours Underwood Stakes (1800m) and said that he would be going up again if the giant grey was a clear leader going to the line in the Group 1 $6.2m Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington on November 5.
“I’ll be up mate, don’t worry about that,” Boss told The Daily Telegraph.
“I can’t guarantee I won’t go up again. We’re getting to the pointy end of the greatest time of the year. We work our arses off for this time of year, and of course you get excited.”
Racing Victoria Stewards’ main concern is safety with jockeys celebrating before the finish with fears they could come off and impede the field behind them, but Boss says that he has no chance of this happening.
“I’ve been riding horses since I was four-years-old. I’m pretty confident on a horse. I’m just as confident on the back of a horse as I am on the ground,” Boss said.
Racing New South Wales chief steward Ray Murrihy agrees with Victoria’s head stipe Terry Bailey that the practice could prove disastrous if something went wrong.
“If the horse does anything wrong, you’ve got no control over it, and being in front of the field you can bring the field down,” Murrihy said.
“The day a jockey loses a major race doing it, people will be asking stewards why we weren’t tougher on it.”
Trainer Darren Weir said that Puissance De Lune is well on track for the Melbourne Cup and was more than happy with his run on Saturday after getting back in a slowly run race.
“I thought the horse went really good, given the slow pace and how it was hard to make ground,” Weir said.
“He may not have finished off the last 50m, but he did run some good sectionals from the 1000m.”
“He will run in a fortnight in the Turnbull Stakes. Everything is ticking over exactly the way we want it at the moment.”
Weir will keep Puissance De Lune at Warrnambool where he does a lot of beach work as he prepares for Group 1 $500,000 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on October 5.
“He’ll have some work on Saturday morning, a good gallop on Tuesday week, a couple of ventures through the sand dunes and a lot of time in the beach water,” Weir said.
