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Glen Boss has been unveiled as one of the headline acts at this year’s Attitude Hotels International Jockeys’ Weekend (IJW) in Mauritius on November 30 and December 1.
The Australian Hall of Fame jockey will be at his first visit on the Indian Ocean island, just like his fellow Australasian colleague, Jason Collett, who is also based in Sydney, but will, however, fly the New Zealand flag.
The two hoops are among a group of six invited international riders who will take part in the annual jockeys' series which over the years (since its inception in 1984) have seen many Aussies/Kiwis such as Brent Thomson, Wayne Harris, Chris Munce (overall winner in 2002), Shane Dye, and more recently, Damien Oliver, Hugh Bowman, Nash Rawiller, Noel Callow (overall winner in 2007 and 2012) and Dwayne Dunn (last year).
The other four jockeys being flown in are last year's runner-up, French jockey Aurelien Lemaitre, his fellow countryman Stephane Pasquier, UK's 2018 champion apprentice jockey Jason Watson and one jockey from India who is yet to be named.
The remaining spots will be filled by foreign jockeys who are already riding on the Indian Ocean island, its recently-crowned champion jockey Manoel Nunes from Brazil, South Africa's Derreck David and Randall Simons as well as three local jockeys namely, Nooresh Juglall, Jameer Allyhosain and Kersley Ramsamy.
"I'm really looking forward to the jockeys' series in Mauritius. I've never ridden there, but I've heard a lot about it from other Aussie jockeys and they all had good fun," said Boss who flies out of Melbourne on Wednesday morning to land there in time for the draw ceremony for the rides.
"It's always a bit of a fun day to catch up with other jockeys and see how you measure up, but we're all very competitive and we'll go all out to win the contest."
Australian fans will get to plump for both Boss and Collett as Mauritian 'live' racing was introduced by Sky Racing channel for the first time at the 2017 IJW.
The programme has not been released yet, but the event is usually split between eight races (with eight runners each) on Saturday and seven on Sunday (one race will be open to the Fegentri Lady Riders league). Rides will be drawn by ballot on Wednesday night at The Ravenala Attitude Hotel.
Points will be allocated as follows: Win (9 points), second place (4 points), third place (2 points) and fourth place (1 point). The winner will be the jockey who racks up the highest score based on the six best finishes.
