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Between them, Chris Waller and Glen Boss have won most of what Australian racing has to offer and on Saturday they combined with Yes Yes Yes to add the nation’s richest race to their war chests – the $14 million The Everest (1200m) at Randwick.
While plying their trades in different roles, Waller as a trainer and Boss as a jockey, there are similarities in their achievements – Boss being the man to guide the great Makybe Diva to three Melbourne Cup wins while Waller put the polish on the modern day super heroine – Winx.
Waller described his first win in The Everest as “that’s just behind the great one” meaning Winx, while Boss said “that is an experience. I promise you that is one hell of an experience”.
“You get here, you stand on the blocks for 100m and you have to get gold. I swear, that is just an unbelievable experience I’ve just had there,” Boss said.
“This is huge. What a feeling!
“This takes me back to 05 (Makybe Diva’s 3rd Melbourne Cup).
“That was very surreal.”
Yes Yes Yes was the second last of the 12 runners to gain a place in The Everest, dragged off the reserves bench by the slot owner Chris Waller Racing when Enticing Star performed below expectations in the Golden Pendant and was subsequently retired.
“Everybody was talking up Bivouac (after the Golden Rose),” Waller said. “If I’m allowed to make mistakes I probably made one in the Golden Rose.
“He might have been one (run) short but I didn’t see that going into it.
“He loomed up to win the race, you don’t often see our horses stop the last fifty, he stopped.”
But there was no stopping the colt on Saturday, with Glen Boss describing his passage throughout the race as “perfect”.
“I just wanted to be behind the grey horse (Classique Legend), somewhere around Nash, that was my plan,” Boss said.
“He was taking me everywhere I wanted to go and when I peeled out three wide on the turn, when I asked him, his turn of speed was Group I quality only.
“Gee he sprinted quickly and his sectional will back that up.
“He was off and gone, he was like a startled gazelle. He was electric.”
Yes Yes Yes ($9) defeated Anthony Freedman’s Santa Ana Lane ($5.50) by a half-length with a long-neck back to the James Cummings-trained Trekking ($21) in third.
The $5 favourite Arcadia Queen finished 11th, only beating home the sole international raider in the race, Coolmore’s Ten Sovereigns.
“There is so much at risk running a colt in a race like this but then again there is so much to gain,” Waller said.
“You have to go to the owners in Coolmore plus the original owners as he wasn’t my horse.
“You have to suggest it can win an Everest, you can’t say you’re going to run second and third.
“Then you have to go to the slot holders to choose it.
“The gamble has become worth the risk.
“He will always been the first colt to win The Everest and it certainly won’t have a detrimental effect on his stud career just because it isn’t a Group I.”
Waller who’s craved a maiden win in the Melbourne Cup for years, said he got a taste of what it would feel like with the amount of attention in the week leading up to Sydney’s flagship race.
The nine-time champion trainer who’s won more Group Is than anyone in recent seasons said he can’t believe the growth of The Everest with Saturday just the third running of the race.
“You talk to people through the week,” he said. “These horses run all the time.
“People can relate to them. Half of them might be back next year, maybe more.
“These are the best sprinters in Australia.
“People want to see them run two weeks beforehand. It’s not just about one race. That is why it will really go ahead.” – Racenet.com.au