FINELY-tuned jockey Glen Boss declared correct weight on the Cox Plate as trainer Danny O'Brien was drawing confidence from the fact Saturday's weight-for-age championship race will be run at a fast clip.
Boss has stripped five kilograms to ride untapped filly Samantha Miss at 47.5kg in the Moonee Valley slugfest, while O'Brien's confidence in last year's Caulfield Cup winner Master O'Reilly grows at a rapid rate.
"If Maldivian and Theseo are up front, they are not going to want to stack them up," O'Brien said yesterday while supervising trackwork from a tower in the centre of Flemington.
"The filly [Samantha Miss] and the mare [Princess Coup] will outsprint them, but Maldivian, with the blinkers on, is not going to be held up."
Maldivian's trainer, Mark Kavanagh, whose brilliant Caulfield Guineas winner Whobegotyou rounds out preparations for the Victoria Derby in Saturday's AAMI Vase, piped in with: "There will be a solid tempo, don't worry about that".
TAB Sportsbet's Glenn Munsie yesterday reported good money for Maldivian and said there was nothing between him and Princess Coup. Maldivian is now in to $12, while Princess Coup and Samantha Miss are at $3.60.
Sportingbet chief Michael Sullivan said one client had $5000 each way on Maldivian at $16, but the biggest wager on the race was $400,000 to $20,000 each way C'est La Guerre.
"The money for Samantha Miss has been consistent but we can't lay Princess Coup," Sullivan said yesterday. "I would say Samantha Miss is going to start a significant favourite come race day."
Luxbet.com.au yesterday laid one Master O'Reilly fan to win the Cox Plate-Melbourne Cup double for a $300,000 result. Master O'Reilly may have come up short in his cup defence last Saturday but the six-year-old did charge home from the tail for seventh.
"The best run from him last year was following a seven-day back-up," O'Brien said. "He won the Winning Edge and a week later won the Caulfield Cup. We just want a solid tempo on Saturday. [We] don't want a walk and trot, or that filly [Samantha Miss] will possie up with no weight. You saw what Savabeel did."
Three-year-old colt Savabeel won the Cox Plate four years ago with Chris Munce on board at 48.5kg. Munce didn't have to waste as hard as Boss, but the latter knows the weight-loss program was perfectly planned and executed.
"We jockeys are kidding ourselves if we think we are fit athletes," Boss said yesterday.
To lose the weight, Boss has punished himself with two 1½-hour sessions in the gym each day and long walks.
"I haven't even been near the sauna," said Boss, who is eating five 120gram meals a day and "snacking in between."
He said: 'I've been drinking at least two litres of water … I'm losing weight."
Boss weighed 48kg yesterday and rode trackwork wearing three sweatshirts. History is against Samantha Miss as only one filly has won the Cox Plate - a champion named Surround (1976).
"She won't get beaten through my lack of fitness. I'll be stronger than her," Boss said. "I'll be stronger than any jockey on the day, I tell you, and they won't have put in the yards I've put in.
"During training I've been getting the wobbly legs and nearly spewing but the coach says if you're not nearly spewing you're not working hard enough."
Boss, who this week confirmed a Melbourne Cup booking for the Irish raider Profound Beauty, reckons the weight challenge came at the right time. "I'm as sharp as a tack," he declared.
Boss wasn't about to divulge any riding tactics on Samantha Miss, which swooped from the rear to clean sweep the four-leg Princess Series in Sydney. That was was under rival jockey Hugh Bowman, who would have had to lose a leg to make the Cox Plate featherweight. Samantha Miss may well be stepping out of her own age bracket for the first time but Boss is not concerned.
"I'm just going to give her a great ride," Boss said. "I will ride her wherever she want's to be ridden."
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