The Boss Has Retired

[Chief Stipe]

Columnist

Why there won't be another quite like Bossy

 

 

By Bruce Clark
02:57pm • 29 November 2021

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Glen Boss rode his last winner in a Benchmark 72 Midway back on August 7 (keep that in mind for future trivia nights – Gemmahra is the answer by the way). 

And he won’t ride another after Saturday’s spectacular (almost r-rated) retirement at Caulfield. But take Winx-like odds he will be many times a winner as his extraordinarily open life keeps travelling along at Boss pace.

Sure, he finishes life now out of the saddle as one of Australia’s most successful and prolific Group 1 winning jockeys, fifth with 90 and only Damien Oliver, George Moore, Jimmy Cassidy and Hugh Bowman ahead.

You know all the other stats and highlights.

But as ever, Bossy, captain of the glass very half full team, so addicted, he could start racing’s version of Alcoholics Anonymous, has his sights set firmly through the wide windscreen, not that little rear-view mirror.

A young Glen Boss having his first pony ride when riding 90 group 1 winners was just a dream

The Energizer Bunny would be considering a new vocation in the presence of Glen Boss.

As we chatted enthusiastically Sunday, sure there was part reminiscence, sadly departed mates like Neil Williams, mentors like businessman Scott Perrin, retirement confidantes like Jimmy Cassidy and long-time friend, State Of Origin hero (Maroon of course) Alfie Langer.

And there were acknowledgements of those surprise messages, amongst thousands on Saturday from the likes of Eddie Maguire to Mick Doohan, Andrew Hoy to Lloyd Williams.

“It was just beautiful stuff, amazing,” said Bossy.

But after a Saturday night of family and friend’s celebrations – “I was home before midnight, I’m getting too old (52), for that stuff” and Sunday Yum Cha lunch with childhood sweetheart, his wife Sloane, Boss is taking to tomorrow, the same way as every day gone by, foot down and ready to go.

“This industry owes me nothing, but it has given me everything I have,” Boss said.

“It’s afforded me our lifestyle, given our children the best education, allowed me to travel the world, more than I could ever know or expect, so now it’s time for me to give back, and I’m so excited about it.”

This is Bossy at his best. Excited as Big Kev (remember him?), flamboyant, forever in your face, his own man, riddled with an incurable disease of self-belief, but as open as any human to flaws and failures and happy to wear them always on his sleeve.

“I have just been overwhelmed with the people and especially the young people at the track on Saturday, it really has taken me aback, but I can’t tell you how excited I am for the future,” Boss said.

And then he does.

And then it’s like an infection. 

So, the Reader’s Digest version of Bossy post racing goes a little like this.

The Ladbrokes gig: “I’ve got a pretty free rein to tell you the truth, it’s a huge platform and there are some really cool people but what I want to do is portray all that is good about our sport. I want to travel around Australia, to all the country cups, meet the people, tell their stories, show the impact racing has on their local communities, that sort of stuff.”

As for opening a Ladbrokes account? “Mate, I’d be the worst punter in the world, and no-one wants a jockey’s tips do they?” I didn’t have the heart to suggest that those are the very sort of punters the corporates dine on.

Then there is Boss on equine and human welfare: “I’m more than happy to put my hand up and share the times that I have been in bad places, dark places. I’m not a counsellor or have a PHD but I have an education in this life and know the challenges to young people. I know the long hours, in my day you were brought up as a man to repair your own issues, face it like a man, but you are only digging yourself a bigger hole. That’s bullshit.

“I want to let people talk to me, put their hand up, I’ve been there, it’s all about education and saying it’s ok, I can tell you once I shed that skin, I came out the other side a much better and stronger person,” Boss said.

“And I want to better project the story of the horse and the care and welfare we have for them, I think it’s the biggest challenge our industry faces. I want to get those animal activists or protesters or those who mouth off against racing to come and share a day or a week with me at the stables and see what we do for our horses. I might not change their mind, but I can try.

Three-time Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Glen Boss on the mighty Makybe Diva

“If they are ignorant, they will be ignorant, but we have to do more.”

And then there is Boss the educator, be it a TAFE like course for trainers, or an all-encompassing apprentice academy as a pathway into the industry that is long overdue.

“I think training and education is vital and I’m looking forward to having some meetings with high profile leaders in our industry to share my view and see what we can do, I can’t wait.”

There will be a Magic Millions ambassador’s gig, opportunities at Channel 7, all things Boss will chew off and run with bubbling with how much is on the plate, to feast on it all and perhaps wondering why he still wasn’t out there and gave it away.

“Having things in place post racing, made the decision much easier. I knew I was coming towards the end of it, but I was quite frightened about what lies beyond so getting these things in place softened the landing for sure and once the decision was more public, the offers started to flow.”

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Boss admits he will miss the horse itself, which he’s been riding since he was four, when his mother Lorraine left Boss’ natural father Terry Finglas and moved to Gympie with sisters Samantha, Kelly and Tina. (If she hadn’t married Tom Boss, Bossy might have been a Finglas, a man he has never seen again)

Naturally there was Pony Club, a painted horse called Pride, then a hand-me down called Sinbad, a crack at rugby league, before a trip to the races as a 15-year-old changed everything.

It was Tom Boss’s mother who was a fixture at the Gympie race and took young Bossy into the jockey’s room and he was hooked, even when an old, chiselled faced rider looked at him and said: “forget it mate, you’re too bloody big”.

But it was that day Boss knew his calling and hadn't stopped chasing it until Saturday. First it was Terry Chinner at Gympie and his first winner in a 300m quarter-horse race on Bassatika in December 1985. And more than 2400 winners since and a roll call of Australia’s best racehorses that have carried him along his journey.

“I’ve never stopped loving the animal, and I reckon I will throw a leg over again one day, whether it’s mustering cattle or just having a ride, but I will.

Boss with wife Sloane at Caulfield on Saturday

“Mate, there is nothing like the moment of cantering off to the barriers on them before a race. You are in your own quiet place, it’s just you and the horse, that’s probably the thing I will miss the most.”

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I’ve known Bossy since he was an apprentice who moved from Chinner to Kaye and Chick Tinsley at the Gold Coast. Our racing lives have been entwined but not enjoined.

It’s just impossible not to be enthused or engaged with him though.

I want to leave here with a little story.

When he left Gympie, there was disagreement over his entitlements (as an apprentice), and by way of compensation he took the option of a car over money – or as he describes “a second-hand banger”.

He didn’t have enough money for petrol to get to the Gold Coast but remembers a sling from an owner whose business was sapphire mining, he gave Boss a handful of blue stones, that would always be a reminder of his tough initiation into racing.

A bare-chested Glen Boss acknowledges the Caulfield crowd after his final race in the saddle. Picture: Michael Klein

Despite advice not to sell, he diverted to Mapleton in the Gold Coast hinterland looking for a gem trader and was astonished when a couple of the stones were worth a claw full of a couple of thousand dollars of cash. Car filled with gas, stomach filled with tucker, Bossy was off to the Gold Coast and stardom albeit across some dry gullies but many an untapped mountain peak.

His end of apprenticeship payout would see him splash $30,000 on a Toyota Celica, then the flash go-to vehicle for would be lairs, and a new apartment with Sloane around Burleigh Heads.

Today Bossy Inc. is an ambassador for Maserati which means he drives a luxury Italian car, for Moonah Links golf courses, which means he plays a bit and puts himself down off 11 when he should be off 16 (very rare for a golfing jockey), but he looks the part, probably because he also has a clothing deal with Mitch Graham suits.

And yes, he still has the remainder of the handful of those blue sapphires.

Don’t think retirement means you won’t be hearing again from G Boss, and that’s a good thing for racing.

 

[Chief Stipe]

Love this picture.  Jockey and Horse both smiling!

 

[nod]

Brilliant erratic showman

No point in giving him riding instructions