The day Makybe Diva ruled The Valley and the iconic photo that almost never happened

For the first time, if only a stride or two, Glen Boss faced nerves on Makybe Diva in the 2005 Cox Plate.

Makybe Diva was 10 sleeps away from an unprecedented and likely never-to-be-repeated third Melbourne Cup triumph when challenged in a legendary Cox Plate.

Award-winning Herald Sun photographer Rob Leeson captured the iconic moment as 10 Cox Plate contenders, including Makybe Diva three from the outside, fanned at the 800m.

“It looked like a straight race,” Boss recounted.

“I don’t think we’ll ever see a race like that.

“It was a great spectacle and she was too good.”

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Boss travelled nicely in the run aboard the champion and popped out at the 1200m to avoid congestion.

With all eyes on the $2 favourite and dual Cup-winner, at the time, the Boss move sparked a chain reaction.

New Zealand jockey Michael Coleman, riding in his first Cox Plate, went first on Kiwi raider Xcellent, trained by the late Michael Moroney, and got shunted widest.

God’s Own (Stephen Baster) and Confectioner (Craig Williams) flanked Makybe Diva at the 800m, with Fields Of Omagh (Steven King) sixth in the line-up.

Hotel Grand (Jay Ford), Desert War (Larry Cassidy), Lotteria (Chris Munce), Greys Inn (Weichong Marwing) and Outback Prince (Darren Beadman) had positions one to five.

“I popped out and they concertinaed,” Boss said.

“They popped out, popped out, popped out.

“Everyone started to make their runs really early.

“There was half a moment there, I had a ‘what the f---’ moment, like this is out of control.

“In that same moment, I thought ‘my God, everyone has gone too soon, way too soon and they won’t beat me now’.”

Boss had every scenario covered – or so he thought – before the 800m mark.

“You try to cover all the bases,” Boss said.

“What could happen, what may happen, but I didn’t have that one.

“I never had that one. Who could’ve predicted that, really?

“That’s what Cox Plates do, it throws up so many scenarios.

“You go into many races with a clear picture on what might transpire, but when you ride in the Cox Plate you go in there thinking there’s going to be a lot of adlibbing.

“The scenarios gets thrown out the window because of the circuit, it lends itself to that kind of racing … I love it.”

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Leeson wasn’t meant to be there that day, let alone capture one of the best images of his long career as a photographer.

Just a few hours earlier he was tucking in a beer and chatting with Sunday Herald Sun picture editor Darren Tindale back in the newspaper’s Southgate office.

On a hunch, Tindale told Leeson to get a cab out to The Valley and position himself on the final corner “just in case” something happened. It did.

An experienced snapper for more than 30 years at the time, Leeson still confesses he knows little about horses.

But as the Cox Plate field took off on a fan that day, instincts told him to keep his hand on the trigger, even though he didn’t particularly know what he was shooting.

“I basically still had a beer in my hand … they (the horses) came out wide and I was like ‘Which one is Makybe Diva?’

“I actually had no idea that this running wide was a big deal. But I recognised her colours and was happy with that. After the race, I finished my beer, grabbed a cab and went back to work.

“I didn’t really know it was anything special until the next day.”

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The fan surprised eventual runner-up Munce, rider of Lotteria.

“I didn’t really know what was going on… it wasn’t until I watched the replay that I realised what had happened because I had sort of kicked clear,” Munce said.

“She (Lotteria) had a habit of switching off a bit and pricking her ears when she hit the front, Lotteria, and you will notice that on the replay. She was flicking her ears back and forward.

“You sense (a horse coming down the outside) and then there is the roar of the big crowd at the Valley. I knew there was a lot of noise, so I knew she (Makybe Diva) was coming.”

King, who won the 2003 Cox Plate on Fields Of Omagh, had eyes only for Makybe Diva and the firsthand experience to boot.

King had ridden Makybe Diva to victory twice in three preceding starts – the Memsie and Turnbull Stakes.

“I was only focused on one horse, Makybe Diva,” King said.

“I knew how well she was going, I knew Bossy was going to be in a situation he was going to just pull her out wide, have enough confidence to circle the field and beat us.

“FOO (Fields Of Omagh) loved The Valley but I knew the only chance of us to beat her was to go before her.

“I wasn’t focused on the other horses, I wasn’t even worried about them, as it was he ran third but he had his chance to beat her but she was just too good.”

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King sweated on the Boss move.

He needed to be in front of Makybe Diva to be any chance.

“My main thing was to be ready from the school onwards and be watching Makybe Diva to make her move,” King said.

“The picture shows me looking across, trying to find her, and obviously I spotted her and got going, because there was no good waiting for her to sprint … she was too good.

“We bounced the ball early and that’s what happened, Bossy pulled out and I think we were all in the same frame of mind, ‘let’s keep going’, she’s going to make it a true test 2000m.

“It’s going to find a lot of them out, that’s what he did.”

Fields Of Omagh, who became the oldest Cox Plate winner with a second victory as a nine-year-old in 2006, chased in vain.

“The good thing about Fields Of Omagh he loved a dogfight and he loved The Valley,” King said.

“It wasn’t until we straightened right up and I’d seen how well Bossy was going I thought ‘oh well, we’re in trouble here’, up until then he was trying his backside off.

“He gave it a great old shake and ran as good as he could.”

Dual Cox Plate-winning jockey Greg Childs had the reverse angle, riding for luck one off the rail behind the fan on fourth-placed Sky Cuddle.

“I rode her conservatively, trying to do a Steven Bradbury-type thing,” Childs said.

“That was my approach, cut the corners and ride for luck and as it turned out, we got a bit of luck.

“They all took off and my thought was ‘I reckon I might be able to run a place here’… I didn’t think I could win as I was never travelling like a winner.

“They all took off with a rush of blood and I rode for luck.”

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Confectioner and God’s Own, who flanked Makybe Diva at the 800m, could not sustain the rain and faded to run 6th and 8th respectively.

“When one (horse) went, and then another one went, we all had to follow,” Williams said.

“It was like a tsunami in racing terms and it got to the stage with me on Confectioner that we just had to go too.

“We couldn’t wait back. She was the strongest and she was the best, and she could endure more than we could.”

Baster echoed the sentiment.

“We had the lightweight (48.5kg) and we tried to put some pressure on her early but she was just too good,” Baster said.

“She was a freak.”

Kiwi Coleman, who retired in 2020 after more than 2100 winners including 39 at the highest level, lamented his first Cox Plate ride.

“It was great to be part of the day, but it was a pretty pitiful ride by me,” Coleman said.

“I remember seeing her a couple lengths in front of me and I came out just to have a look down the back, and I got shunted wider and we ended up going way too soon.

“It was not one of my best rides but any rate, it was great to be part of the day.

“It seemed to be a bit of a chain reaction at the half mile, we got flushed way too deep.

“He still ran well and went on from there and ran well in the Melbourne Cup (third).

“It was great to see the great mare in the flesh, it was a beautiful ride by Bossy.

“Bossy got the sweet run out and made all the moves at the right time and got the job done.”

Makybe Diva saluted by 1¼ lengths from Lotteria and Fields Of Omagh.

“She was my first,” four-time Cox Plate-winner Boss said.

“That was the cream on the top for her, we set about trying to make her a proper champion.

“She won the Cup twice but you got to win our greatest race to be anointed a champion and she came out and blew them away that day.“

Leeson ended up winning the best racing photo award and the overall best photo story award, taking home a mini Cox Plate and two tickets for a Queensland holiday.

And two decades later, he still has the slightly faded but spectacular image on display at his home, still marvelling at how fate put him in the perfect place at the perfect time to score one of his most-talked about photos.

Originally published as The day Makybe Diva ruled The Valley and the iconic photo that almost never happened