Champion jockey Glen Boss has called for the Geelong Cup to offer automatic entry into the Melbourne Cup following Gatewood's win last week.
Photo by Racing and Sports
Boss rode English stayer Gatewood to a strong win in the $250,000 Geelong feature but will likely miss the Melbourne Cup after receiving just a one-kilogram penalty.
The win and subsequent weight penalty promoted Gatewood to number 36 in the order of entry, and he's now crept up to number 33 after second acceptances were taken on Monday morning. Manighar, Midas Touch and Seville have dropped out.
Gatewood will now run in the Group 3 Lexus Stakes (2500m) on Saturday, a win in which would earn him exemption from the Melbourne Cup ballot.
Boss said the Geelong Cup, which produced the last two Melbourne Cup winners in Americain and Dunaden, should offer the same prize.
“If you make the Geelong Cup a qualifying race exempt from ballot, not only would it make it a better race but it would help the cause of someone trying to get into the race,” Boss said.
“It's become a different race now the Melbourne Cup than what it used to be and we'll see this trend happening from now on.
“The spread from top to bottom is not that much. You're going to have horses with top weights of 59, maybe 60 and the bottom weights are only 53.
“The spread won't be that much.”
Racing Victoria handicapper Greg Carpenter handed Gatewood a 1kg penalty following the win, citing a slowly run race and a handy weight pull against his opposition.
The last Geelong Cup winner to be penalised more than a kilogram was Media Puzzle who was bumped 1.5kg after his win in 2002 before going on to a memorable Melbourne Cup salute.
Boss felt the strength of Gatewood's Geelong Cup win had been underrated.
“It wasn't a real contest as far as the tempo is concerned but my horse was adaptable on the day he raced in a really tactical position outside the leader and I had the favourite covered virtually every step of the way,” Boss said.
“It was never going to be a race where you were going to win by five [lengths] because you just can't run any quicker than he was running.
“All the field was hitting the line. The handicapper probably took a little bit of a different look at it saying it wasn't a real contest.
“At the end of the day I thought my horse was very good through the line. You know how much better he's going to be when he gets to two miles and gets there in a better tempo race.
“If he actually does, he'll be a legitimate chance to winning the Melbourne Cup.”
