Trainer Chris Waller and jockey Glen Boss have combined to win Sydney’s second richest race two weeks after claiming the biggest cheque on offer.
Under the kind of ride it seems only Boss can deliver, Kolding (NZ) (Ocean Park) has come through the pack to win Saturday’s A$7.5m Golden Eagle (1500m) for four-year-olds at Rosehill to add to the A$14 million Everest win by Yes Yes Yes (Rubick).
Kolding also won the Gr.1 Epsom Handicap (1600m) early last month to stamp himself a spring star.
Waller opted to support the Golden Eagle day at Rosehill rather than attend the Victoria Derby at Flemington and said he needed to be in Sydney win, lose or draw.
“I needed to be here. This is where I train and where I started in Sydney,” Waller said.
“And to win the first running of this race is very special and to do it with Glen Boss, well it is more so.
“The good jockeys find that bit extra the last hundred metres of a race and that’s what Glen did.
“He looked as if he was going to be very unlucky, he was like a pinball machine up the straight.
“It’s very special. We sacrificed some big races in Melbourne but I think this race will quickly capture the imagination the Everest has and will catch up to the Group One races pretty quickly.”
Kolding’s final lunge denied the gallant Sunlight (Zoustar) after she had done a lot of work to lead from a wide barrier.
For Boss, who unsuccessfully tried to get connections to hold the ride on Melbourne Cup favourite Constantinople (Galileo) until after his appeal on Monday against a suspension, the win was one to savour.
“Wow that was some race,” he said.
“I’d almost given up to be honest because of the speed in the race. I thought ‘I should have been more positive’ or ‘I should have made them work a bit more’, all these things were going through my head.
“But then you just straight away switch back, you’ve got a job to do.
“The horse is a star. His form was the best going into the race. I knew I was on the right horse.
“I am dreaming right now. If you’d said this to me six months ago I would have laughed.
“I have this horse to thank. Without these beautiful specimens of animals the athletes that they are we wouldn’t be here.
“I’m privileged to be part of Team Waller, Neville Morgan’s family and this horse because he’s a serious animal.”
Boss returned to Sydney earlier this year after riding in Singapore. Waller said the Gr.1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2040m) in autumn and next year’s Gr.1 Cox Plate (2040m) would be targets for Kolding.
Kolding was purchased out of Wentwood Grange’s 2017 Premier Yearling Sale draft for $170,000 by bloodstock agent Guy Mulcaster.
