KEY POINTS:
He's on the wrong side of 50, but Noel Harris is back for another tilt at the Melbourne Cup - 34 years after his first attempt.
Harris, considered the "Godfather" of New Zealand jockeys, will ride Princess Coup in Tuesday's A$5 million Cup, a little more than three weeks after guiding her to win the $2m Kelt Capital Stakes at Hastings - and then being discarded by connections.
Hong Kong-based hoop Glen Boss took the mount for the Caulfield Cup on October 20, finishing third on the mare. He was suspended for interference and then unsuccessful in his appeal - meaning he forfeited her final lead-up race, the LKS Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington this Saturday.
Boss retained the Cup mount, but yesterday advised trainer Mark Walker that stewards in Hong Kong had told him he had to ride at a meeting there on Tuesday.
Walker then contacted Harris, who ironically got the mount for the Kelt, and earlier the Stoney Bridge Stakes, because Chris Johnson would not be able to make her weight of 50.5 kilograms for the Cups in Melbourne.
"You don't get a ride in the Cup like that every year," joked Harris, 52, who has ridden in 10 of them. While he was disappointed to initially lose the Melbourne assignments, he remained philosophical.
"I am used to disappointments and the way things can swing around. It's merry-go-rounds mate, it's just one of those things in racing," he said. "It's just an honour to ride in the Cup."
And Harris has had a dramatic history in the big race. In his first ride, aboard Glengowan, trained by his father Jock, the 18-year-old apprentice almost won, going down in a photo-finish to Gala Supreme.
The youngster copped a roasting from the Australian press, as he stopped riding at one stage when the unsound gelding shifted in down the famous Flemington straight.
"They said I was a boy on a man's errand. But a year later Brent Thomson, who was still an apprentice, rode Fury's Order as favourite and it ran last. Nothing was said."
Since then, Harris has compiled a tidy Cup record, riding one of his favourite horses, Castletown, into third in 1992, two fourths on Lord Metric and Kiwi and a sixth on Fountaincourt.
His last Cup run was on Hail, 12th behind Media Puzzle in 1992.
Harris admits winning the Melbourne Cup is a dream, but says he will be content with his record if he and Princess Coup don't pull off the big one this year.
"It's every jockey's dream to win the Cup, but if I don't I have won the Cox Plate and Tancred Stakes (on Poetic Prince), the two richest weight-for-age races in Australia and it was nice to win them."
Harris is 32 short of 2000 wins as a jockey and says he will retire when it suits him. He likes Princess Coup and thinks she will be better suited to Flemington than Caulfield.
"Glen Boss rode a brilliant race on her and I thought before the turn that she might win, but she didn't finish off like she can. "At Caulfield you have to take the gaps when you can, but at Flemington you can be more patient."
He has to lose a couple of kilos, but said in the past five years he has been able to shed weight when required and doesn't envisage any problems.
But he will waste for the mount where he is comfortable - at home - and fly to Melbourne early on Tuesday.
Said Walker: "It was a gun ride from Noel in the Kelt (Capital Stakes at Hastings) and he's ridden a lot of big race winners for us. He's assured us he'll make the weight."
- NZPA
