Ellis Reflects on Bosson's Career

James Tzaferis - racing.com reports:

When a 14-year-old Opie Bosson walked into Te Akau Stud, David Ellis knew there was something special about the kid.

The Te Akau boss could see he was a hard worker and that he had an incredible understanding and feel for a horse that cannot be taught.

Three decades later, one of Australasian racing’s most successful partnerships has come to an end with the shock news on Friday that 44-year-old Bosson will retire from riding with immediate effect.

His post on social media platform X came several hours after a phone conversation with Ellis in which he revealed a waning love for the sport and a desire to take a step back from riding.

A disappointed Ellis said he and his team respected Bosson’s decision.

“We had a chat early this morning and he just feels that he’s not enjoying it anymore and now is the right time to retire,” Ellis said.

“We’ve got to respect that.

“He came to work for me when he was 14, so we’ve been a team for a long time.

“From day one, everybody thought that he was a natural.

“From those early days, he was a very good judge in trackwork, he could give you a very accurate description of how a horse would perform and he was rarely wrong.

“It has been a very happy and successful association.

“Just in the last few years he won Group 1 races in Australia with Te Akau Shark, Probabeel, Imperatriz, Gingernuts and other quality horses, so he’s really held himself well on the world stage.”

Almost half of Bosson’s 99 Group 1 wins have come for Te Akau and he’s formed potent strike-rates with trainers Jamie Richards, Mark Walker and Sam Berguson.

In recent years, Bosson’s talents in the saddle were showcased in Australia via the deeds of champion mare Imperatriz, aboard whom he won 12 races, as well as Melody Belle (9 wins), Avantage (8 wins) and Probabeel (6 wins).

Ellis said Bosson’s retirement will undoubtedly create opportunities for other jockeys.

That may include Australian-based riders being flown to New Zealand for feature races over the coming months, as was the case with Blake Shinn’s appearance at Ellerslie on Boxing Day (and Luke Currie to ride Skew Wiff in the Group 1 Telegraph this weekend, with Craig Williams heading over for the assignment aboard Captured By Love in the Group 1 Railway).

“We’ve always had younger jockeys coming through, riding some work for us and this will give them great opportunities,” he said.

“Opie has had weight restrictions for some time, so we’ve had to use other jockeys at certain times of the year, so we’ve got really good relationships with some other riders.

“We had Josh Parr come over (to NZ) and he won the Group 1 at Riccarton recently, we had Blake Shinn over riding yesterday for us and we’ve got some good, young jockeys coming through like Wiremu Pinn.

“We’ve had great success with other established New Zealand jockeys like Michael McNab and Craig Grylls as well.”