Not just another horse race

Makybe Diva, ridden by jockey Glen Boss, has just won the 2004 Melbourne Club not twenty minutes ago.

Immediately after the win, Boss, with tears streaming down his face in the rain and all choked up at just winning the race, declared, “I’ve only cried like that when I watched my children being born.” For Boss the win was, “the best thing in my working career.”

I think this expresses the huge shift we’ve seen in the world of men and fathers today. Yes, in Australia, men are allowed to get teary and emotional over sporting achievements (or failures). But Boss has so publicly declared his emotions and openly acknowledges that the only other occasion where he had felt so strongly was at the birth of his children. It has to say something about fathers these days. Hopefully, it says more about men in general.

To also give credit where credit is due, Makybe Diva is the first mare to have ever won the Melbourne Cup twice.