MARVELLOUS MAKYBE DIVA
After settling in, Makybe Diva was sent to trainer David Hall. She didn’t make her racetrack debut until July 2002 when she finished fourth in a Benalla maiden. People really started to take notice when she won her next six starts, ending with success in the Werribee Cup and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes during the 2002 Melbourne Cup Carnival. Winning the 2002 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (with Luke Currie aboard) qualified the mare for the 2003 Melbourne Cup, so her trainer was able to spend the next 12 months preparing her. It was then that the legend began. It was also the start of the great relationship between Makybe Diva and her champion jockey, Glen Boss. In the 2003 Cup, he brought the mare through the field with an uninterrupted run. In 2004, when she changed stables and joined the Lee Freedman team after Hall accepted an invitation to train in Hong Kong, Boss showed incredible courage to take the rails run on a damp Flemington track. And in the last of her memorable Cup wins in 2005, he had her perfectly placed throughout, producing her at the top of the straight after the runs presented and racing clear for a historic win. LEGEND STATUS: Glen Boss and Makybe Diva create history achieving the first three-peat in the 2005 Melbourne Cup. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images) “...a champion becomes a legend!” 3 The jockey has admitted that he can still become emotional when his favourite racehorse is mentioned. The Makybe Diva period of his life not only changed him, but brought so much enjoyment to his family. “She took me to world notoriety by winning three Melbourne Cups, and she clearly gave me the greatest thrills I have experienced on a racetrack. “From the first time I was legged aboard her until I slipped off her for the final time after winning that last Melbourne Cup, she was the ultimate professional that refused to give in,” he said. Boss believes that Makybe Diva’s bravery and determination mixed with her untold talent made for one of the greatest racehorses of her time. Trainer Lee Freedman Go and find the smallest child on this course, because there will be an example of the only person here that will live long enough to see something like that again.
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