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By Ray Hickson

Amid all the commotion of a feature race barrier draw jockey Glen Boss doesn’t bat an eyelid when his Epsom Handicap mount Funstar is asked to jump from 19 over the Randwick mile.

Glen Boss and Funstar's trainer Chris Waller. (Pic: Steve Hart).

Boss has been there, done that, and frankly says it has no impact on Funstar’s chances.

“I’ve won big races plenty of times from out there, all those good miles,’’ Boss said.

“I’ve won them from 20, I’ve won them from 18, I’ve drawn sticky barriers but it doesn’t bother me.”

There are four Epsom Handicaps on Boss’s mantle, he has a record seven Doncaster Miles to go with them. In fact he won both races in 2019.

Kolding jumped from gate 12 in last year’s Epsom, Boss had to negotiate from barrier 20 to win the Doncaster on Brutal so you can see why he doesn’t care about where the horse jumps so long as the horse is good enough.

And, clearly, he believes Funstar has all the assets needed to win the Group 1 $1m TAB Epsom Handicap (1600m) at Royal Randwick on Saturday.

“She has good gate speed. When you look at the race there’s not that much pressure there,’’ he said.

“Where is the speed? Some are going to force themselves to get into a spot but she just goes bang. She won a Flight Stakes by leading so she can do whatever you want.

“So it’s not hard for me, my decision was always going to be the same regardless of where I drew. You commit straight away to what you’re going to do but then you take your time.

“I was always going to be positive, it’s irrelevant for me because of the spot I was going to be in so it’s just matter of working across.”

The Chris Waller-trained mare started the spring as one of the potential headline acts of the carnival though she’s winless after two runs back from a spell.

She left it a bit late first-up in the Show County (1200m), running sixth, then was run down by Wild Planet in the Group 2 Theo Marks (1300m) three weeks ago.

Boss said while this will be his first race ride on the four-year-old he’s taken the opportunity a couple of times, at various stages of her life so far, to sit on her back.

“I’ve ridden her in work a couple of times,’’ he said.

“I worked her on Saturday on the course proper and she was great, and she pulled up after the gallop in really good shape.”

The last four-year-old mare to win the Epsom was the great Winx in 2015, only three mares have won in the past 50 years, and nine of the last 12 winners have jumped from a double figure barrier.

Funstar drifted to $12 after the barrier draw and has just 52.5kg.

Funstar runs second in the Theo Marks on September 12

A light weight is giving Boss hope he can negotiate a peak run out of Girl Tuesday in the Group 1 $750,000 Heineken Metropolitan (2400m) but he says the mare has developed a worrying habit in her recent runs.

The Clarry Conners-trained mare drops to 50kg, she was beaten two lengths by Taikomochi in the Group 3 Kingston Town Stakes (2000m) two weeks ago after getting a long way out of her ground.

“I rode her this morning and she’s airborne but she’s got this habit of not wanting to get into a race,’’ Boss said.

“The other day she was giving them about six lengths start after 200m. It’s just come into her psyche and at her last two runs she’s done it.”

Again an outside alley doesn’t overly concern Boss, her recent efforts haven’t gone unnoticed given she’s $17 with TAB, and he said it’s a matter of whether she gives 100 per cent.

“She can win, she’s been set for the race. She’s just an enigma at the moment,’’ he said.

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Randwick meeting