‘I had a sense’: Boss recalls final moment with Melbourne Cup legend Makybe Diva

Jockey Glen Boss had a premonition when he patted and cuddled Makybe Diva during last year’s spring carnival that he would never see the history-making mare again.

Boss recalled the special moment on Saturday afternoon as news spread across the country that the three-time Melbourne Cup winner had died from a sudden colic attack.

She died in retirement at owner Tony Santic’s property at Gnarwarre, near Geelong, aged 27.

“I was privileged to see her only a couple of months ago,” Boss said on social media platform X.

“She looked so gorgeous. Her eye was clear, her skin was amazing, her feet were really well.

“But I had a sense at 26-years-old this might be the last time I see her. But what a moment we had.”

Colic is a gastrointestinal issue in horses that can lead to death.

A sense of melancholy swept across Flemington Racecourse on Saturday afternoon, a venue at which Makybe Diva became the only horse to win three Melbourne Cups – in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

She won the first for trainer David Hall in 2003 before he relocated to Hong Kong, and then the next two for Lee Freedman and his brothers.

Soon after she won her third, bringing the entire Flemington crowd to its feet as she swept down the home straight, a tearful Santic announced her retirement from racing.

“From the day she came into our lives, she was never just a racehorse, she was family,′ Santic said on Saturday.

“She gave us moments Australia will never forget, but more than that, she gave us joy every single day.

“She was loved from the beginning, and she stayed loved for her whole life.”

Makybe Diva was named Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year in 2005 after winning the Melbourne Cup, Australian Cup, BMW Stakes at Rosehill, Memsie Stakes, Turnbull Stakes and an incredible Cox Plate in which she surfed the famous wave of horses to victory.

She was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame the following year. She was retired as a broodmare in 2019.

Retired racecaller Greg Miles laid flowers at the Makybe Diva statue at Flemington on Saturday to honour her unmatched deeds.

She provided Miles with perhaps his greatest call: “when a champion becomes a legend,” he bellowed in 2005.

Boss, Santic and Hall were re-united at Flemington on Maybe Diva Stakes day last September to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her third Melbourne Cup.

The champion jockey said after the win he took his mount to a spot near Flemington’s famous clocktower.

“I made a real conscious decision that I took her back to the people – because she was a people’s horse,” Boss told the Dos and D podcast this year.

“She wasn’t mine. She wasn’t Tony and Christine’s [Tony and Christine Santic]. She was ours.

“So I took her back to the clocktower – the famous clocktower ... and said ‘everyone, this is for you’. And she just stood there and looked at the crowd.”

Boss recorded an emotional tribute video on Saturday afternoon to his “partner in crime”.

He was sitting alongside his three Melbourne Cup trophies. He poured a beer into one of the golden goblets and toasted the life of a mare he called ’Mum”.

“She was brilliant right to the end,” Boss said. “What can we say? She just left such an incredible footprint in Australian sport. Not only in racing, she went far beyond that.

“She was an absolute champion. So today is a celebration of her legacy. What she has done. For what she has done for me personally. I cannot thank her enough.”

While Lee Freedman was unavailable for comment on Saturday, he had long marvelled at the Makybe Diva phenomenon.

He recalled a woman begging him for a towel in the week before the mare’s final race. Makybe Diva had waded through the shallows at Safety Beach before a crowd of about 100 people and Freedman used the cloth to wipe her down.

The woman hugged the damp souvenir to her chest and vowed to frame it.

“I’m pretty sure she won’t ever have washed it,” Freedman later said. “She may even have cashed it in, who knows.”

Freedman admitted some regret at retiring the champ because there were other races for her to win. But, he said, he rarely looked back.

VRC chairman Neil Wilson and CEO Kylie Rogers also laid flowers at Makybe Diva’s statue.

“Makybe Diva was more than a champion – she truly transcended the sport of racing,” Wilson said.

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