'I had nothing left': Kiwi jockey great Opie Bosson retires from racing www.nzherald.co.nz “I was out there running in my sweat gear and ran past other people enjoying their Christmas Day and I thought ‘what am I doing?’,” said the 44-year-old. “I know I have thought about retiring before but this is it. There is definitely no coming back. “I have been thinking about it for a while, to be honest since [champion racehorse] Imperatriz retired in April. “I know I won’t get to the heights she took me to again and I just wondered more and more why I was doing it.” Bosson has often struggled with his weight, which needs to get as low as 54kg to ride all the leading chances he would like to maximise his career potential and earning power. He isn’t the only jockey fighting, often losing, that battle but for much of 2024 that discipline has become dread. “The wasting [losing weight] has never really been easy but when your heart is in it and you are loving the racing then you can do it. “But when your heart isn’t in it the wasting becomes too hard. You don’t want to and in the end you can’t do it anymore. “That is how I felt on Christmas Day and I knew it wasn’t coming back.” Bosson rode at Ellerslie on Thursday, finishing fourth in the Group 1 Zabeel Classic on Ladies Man, who at its previous start had given Bosson his 99th career Group 1 win, racing’s elite level. The next question is obvious: why wouldn’t Bosson keep going to get to the magical 100, which he has stated was his great goal? “I don’t want to be out there, especially in Group 1s, going around when I shouldn’t be,” he said. “The horses and their owners deserve better than that and that is how people make mistakes, riding after wasting too hard or when their mind isn’t right. “I don’t want to retire on a low or after an accident.” As Bosson talks it is not with the desperation or dehydration of past, short-lived retirements. His voice is laced with relief and resignation. He is already talking about tomorrows. Staying in racing, not on horseback but close to the animals that have provided the peaks of his personal rollercoaster. “I will take some time to work it all out. I am still coming to terms with it.” His loss to New Zealand racing will be immense. Bosson is one of the few New Zealand sportspeople, especially those living here, to have frenzied crowds chant his name. “There is only one Opie Bosson” was the chorus when he dominated Karaka Millions meetings. He made decisions that won people millions of dollars without thinking, and was gifted with instinct and affinity with horses. Even New Zealand’s greatest modern day jockey and world champion James McDonald talks of being “schooled” by Bosson and puts him on the list of the best he has ridden against anywhere in the world. As for Bosson’s best rides, his love for Imperatriz is obvious and he is proud of winning the Caulfield Cup on Mongolian Khan. The list of thank yous is long: Te Akau boss David Ellis, trainers such as Mark Walker, Murray Baker, Allan Sharrock, even young Sam Bergerson, their training partners and all their staff. “The owners who have put me on their horses, I have to thank them and all the horses I have been lucky to ride.” Bosson brought up his 2000th New Zealand win aboard Move To Strike at Te Rapa in December 2023 and finishes with a career tally of 2146 wins, 2059 of those coming in New Zealand, said manager Aidan Rodley. Bosson won 51 races in Australia, 16 of those at Group 1 level, as well as 31 in Singapore, including two Singapore Group 1 races that didn’t count towards his international Group 1 tally. “It has been amazing. Hard at times but I have been doing this for 30 years. That is long enough. “I don’t know how I know it’s time to finish but it is. I can feel it inside.” In the end, the numbers won’t really matter. Whether Bosson rode 99 Group 1s or 101, he did something only the greats in any sporting arena can achieve. He was, on his best days, able to influence and even control outcomes simply by being in the contest. Because he was so good his opposition would be mesmerised and while they watched, he won. But now the price of winning, the price of riding, is more than Bosson’s body, and mind, are willing to pay.

All good good luck with it...fingers crossed.

$100 Winning Bet for this competition Sorry didn't know where to post, hopefully will get read. Rotorua Race 2 #9 Clear Conscience $50 E/W Thank you Happy Punting New Year Race Cafe memnbers  

He will no doubt now relocate a big team to Cromwell base for the CO circuit. 

In terms of pure speed, there was no better race in 2024 than the Jaipur Strakes. View the full article

The most hopeful of Japan's 2-year-old crop tackle the Dec. 28 Hopeful Stakes (G1) at Nakayama Racecourse; the nation's top dirt runners face off the next day in the Tokyo Daishoten (NAR-G1).View the full article

Boxing day at Awapuni usually a good day out and we'll patronised if the weather plays ball, the party then carries on into the bars and pubs in Palmerston North. The race fields can be average,  lacking any black type races......  

Agreed. If they know it's incorrect and could skew a result in a tight finish - the only time they actually need the photo - why even bother looking at it. It can only create issue they can do without. I must admit though, after seeing the pics of the finish on the screen, which at least you didn't have to put up with 🤣, l found it impossible to tell who had won. ln fact, l was so adamant it wasn't Aladdin Sane that l didn't even bother following the result up when Trackside went home for the day immediately after that race. It was only the next time l went to use my account l found l'd collected. With the 4 horses locked together Aladdin Sane had one horse inside it and two outside, and with all the heads-up and heads-down going on you couldn't tell what belonged to whom. And that's on a 78" tele 🤣 I mean I'm happy we both collected, but when an experienced trainer questions the result, and we find out one of the two cameras isn't in line, you just hope they actually got it right.  

This all ties in with what somewhat else noted the other day. And which I, as a harness person, have noticed about Central Districts gallops racing. It is MASSIVELY over-catered for. So many meetings, such small fields. It's ridiculous and yet it goes on and on, year after year.

The way they are fucking around with the Telegraph is an absolute disgrace , if they try hard enough I'm sure they will find another few days in January that they can try running it on , any old shitty day will do . Have they got any idea how time honored this race is , not some poxy little country sprint . This shit makes my blood boil . WRC are complicit in this , sorry Insider , but this club needs to show some balls and tell them to get stuffed . There used to be a 3 day Wellington Cup "CARNIVAL" in the middle of January . Now there is a meeting masquerading as a side kick to some poxy northern meeting . This just makes my blood boil . Oh I've already said this , point made then .

I think you are taking this issue rather lightly .

Ha, as fate would have it I also had Aladdin Sane in the 4th leg of the quaddie that day, which is why I remember it so well.  I was out and about with very little internet coming through on my phone and I had seen the end of the race and suddenly my reception died and I had to wait for about 45 agonising mins before I could get access and find out the damn result 😂 Just read the stipes report from that day:  Following the running of this race Trainer S Marsh queried the official result of placings declared by the Judge. Stewards interviewed J Craig (Judge) and Trainer S Marsh along with viewing the official photo finish, accordingly under Rule 641(5) the decision of the Judge was deemed final. Anywho, not sure why the judge is even bothering to view the reverse angle if they know its wrong.  

No point moving anything to Trentham at this time of year. There is nobody in Wgtn for the next few weeks.

I don't remember that one.

Interesting to note that Te Akau may not have a starter in the Karaka 2yo this year. They currently have 14th and 15th in the order of entry, so they wouldn't want anything outside the first 15 to win a race over the next week or two. The 15th in the order might scrape in as it races in a high staked small field next week so running last might give it a enough stake money to sneak in. No such worries in the 3yo Karaka. Anything inside the first 40 in the order of entry should get in as there are so many doubtful starters.

Some fields for Rangiora are a little shy of numbers

Yes, l remember that one well. I had Aladdin Sane in (from memory) the Quaddie (or maybe it was the treble?), and in the 4-way photo l didn't think he'd actually won even though it was impossible to tell from the multiple replays......and then Trackside switched to a race from the back of beyond without giving a result. It was definitely extremely close between the inside trio, and now we know different cameras give different results in a photo finish. How on earth can that happen in 2024?

exactly the point of my initial post Gubes

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yup sorted now in  second post  was getting cross eyed