In a season of peaks and troughs, Glen Boss described his last two months as “horrible”, but remained upbeat he would turn the corner soon, especially with better quality horses on their way back - like Imperium.
The Australian jockey was in Kranji’s Top 3 as recently as the beginning of June, but has since slid down to seventh place on the log.
Soon after tasting Group 1 glory with Lim’s Cruiser’s win in the Lion City Cup (1200m) on May 26, he hit a flat spot.
With his last winner Desert Fox on June 17, the win-meter has stalled at 27, a gap of 20 winners behind leader Vlad Duric.
Support has dipped as well, but the triple Melbourne Cup-winning jockey who turns 49 next Tuesday, is confident he can get out of the doldrums. Last year – at his first full season in Singapore – he finished fourth on 51 winners, 32 behind champion jockey Vlad Duric.
Among the horses who can help make up for that recent dearth of quality rides, Imperium jumped out of the page at Thursday’s barrier trials.
“The last two months have been horrible, but I’m working hard on it and we’ll get there, don’t you worry about that,” said Boss, a winner of more than 2,900 races including a whopping 87 at Group 1 level in a glittering 30-year career in the saddle.
“I’m pretty excited with the way horses like Imperium and Lim’s Magic are coming along. Lim’s Magic ran super in the Singapore Derby (third to Jupiter Gold) and is going really well.
“He’s back on track and will be heading towards the Raffles Cup (1800m) at the end of September.
“Imperium is another nice horse that I’m looking forward to getting back on. I like this horse a lot and he went really good this morning.”
At his first barrier trial since his last-start closing second to Made In China in a Class 4 Premier race over 1200m on May 6, the I Am Invincible four-year-old was more forward than usual under Boss, before parting company at the top of the straight for a 3 ¼-length win from Smart Racer (Olivier Placais).
“Imperium has always shown ability from Day 1,” said Boss who has ridden the Australian-bred gelding at three of his five starts, including his only win in a Restricted Maiden race over 1200m in February.
“But he was still immature and green in his races. At his last start, he missed the start, and with his high head carriage, he was overracing a fair bit.
“I was lucky to be able to push him up. His closing sectionals were very good.
“He’s come back a stronger horse after his break. He’s not a big horse, but I would say he has come back heavier.
“He’s still a bit keen, but he’s galloping a lot better now. I’ve been doing a lot of slow work on him, just trying to get him to do things right.
“I have no doubt he’s going to develop into a very good Open Class horse one day.”
At one stage, Imperium was one of a slew of three-year-olds trainer Michael Clements had the luxury of picking from for this year’s Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge, but he was in the end left out. The likes of Yabadabadoo, Quarter Back and Safeer represented the yard in the end, but none succeeded.
“He was a promising horse but he was also a late November foal. He was physically immature, and we took him out of the 3YO equation,” said assistant-trainer Michael White.
“There is no set plan for him. He will run another trial and we will look for a Class 4 race for him next.
“He’s a horse who should be ridden quietly. He runs like a 1400m-miler and I’m sure he’ll get away in a 1400m in a low grade.
“But I’d me more inclined to keep him to sprints for now. To me, he’s more a get-back sprinter type, even if his physique and pedigree suggest we can try him over 1400m later.”
