New Dad - Difficult Draw

The New Zealand Herald's Michael Guerin reports:



Max Bosson's dad is going to have to wait a few days to celebrate the arrival of his newborn son.

Because champion jockey Opie Bosson is in pre-Karaka Million weight watching mode which means there will be no celebrating until Ellerslie on Saturday night at the earliest.

Bosson and his wife Emily, a presenter for Trackside television, welcomed their son into the world on Tuesday night, with Opie choosing to forgo his rides at Avondale yesterday to be with his new family.

Also missing was a celebratory beer as Opie needs to be able to ride at 54.5kgs for the mount on Probabeel in the $1 million Karaka Million, a race in which the flying filly drew terribly yesterday.

Facing starting from the outside gate Probabeel has now lost favouritism to key rival Whiskey Neat, who has drawn perfectly at barrier two.

But while that changes Bosson's tactics it doesn't change his first task, making the 54.5kgs.

"I have made it the last two years for Melody Belle and Avantage and it is a bit easier now I am fit," he says.

"And to be honest I have hardly eaten a thing the last two weeks because we first moved house and now Max has arrived so the weight won't be a problem.

"But I will be leaving any celebrating until Saturday night, probably even Sunday." While the arrival of a little Bosson into the world trumps anything that could happen at Ellerslie on Saturday, Opie kept up with yesterday's barrier draw on his phone and wasn't impressed.

"It is not a good draw, especially at Ellerslie because the 1200m there is one of the hardest places in the country to overcome a wide barrier draw.

"She is a filly who might have got back anyway but from a better draw she could have been three or four spots closer.

"She now faces a huge task, no matter how good she is."

Inside draws have been gold in the previous 11 Karaka Million juvenile races but barrier 14 has been overcome before, by Vincent Mangano in the very first running of the race.

But with now favourite Whiskey Neat drawn ideally at barrier two and looking a likely leader, Probabeel should be giving him an awfully big start. While Bosson had other things on his mind yesterday trainer Jamie Richards was left wondering what he has done to deserve his lost month of feature-race draws after Melody Belle's horror run with starting positions in the Railway and Telegraph.

"We have three of our good chances drawn 12 or wider for this race, which is not a lot of fun," said Richards, who has five in the race.

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