Anthony Mithen asks for black armband to be worn as tribute to AFL great Peter Bosustow at Gold Coast races on Saturday

Anthony Mithen wants to honour late Australian Rules footballer Peter Bosustow when the colt named after him races at the Gold Coast on Saturday.

Young colt Bosustow will race in honour of the late footballer he was named after, Peter Bosustow, at the Gold Coast on Saturday.

Rosemont Stud boss Anthony Mithen will ask Queensland stewards for permission for jockey Josh Parr to wear a black armband as he rides Bosustow, the star young colt named after the late, great Australian Rules footballer.

Peter Bosustow, known as “the Buzz”, won two VFL premierships with the Carlton Blues in the 1980s and the West Australian was one of the most electrifying players of the era.

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Peter Bosustow passed away last week but in his final years had struck up a friendship with Mithen due to the naming of the colt, who has been twice Group 1 placed and won the $3m Gold Coast Magic Millions 3YO Guineas in January.

Mithen and his business partners have a syndicate where they name young colts after football legends.

Mithen got a phone call out of the blue from Peter Bosustow after the ex-footy star spied the young horse and it sparked a friendship between the two and Bosustow closely followed the colt named after him.

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“I got a phone call when the horse had trialled, it was random number but I answered it, and the voice on the other end said, ‘This is the greatest Carlton footballer to ever pull on the number four jersey in the history of the game’,” Mithen recalls.

“I knew straight away who it was, but being a smart arse I said to him, ‘Well your voice isn’t deep enough to be Stephen Kernahan.

“It was one of my quicker good lines that I’ve come up with in recent years.

“Peter roared with laughter and then called me an arsehole.

Bosustow winning the Gold Coast Magic Millions 3YO Guineas in January.

“We had been phone pals ever since, although unfortunately we never met face-to-face.

“He would ring me once a month to chat about the horse and we would swap texts.

“He said to me the horse had helped him through a tough time in his life, he had been going through health issues.

“He got a real kick out of it.”

Mithen and trainers Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald are hoping to qualify Bosustow to race in next month’s Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap during the Queensland winter carnival.

The colt’s winter mission starts on Saturday in the Group 3 Gold Coast Guineas (1200m) on the same track where he zoomed to victory in the Magic Millions 3YO Guineas earlier this year.

Bosustow WINS the Magic Millions 3YO Guineas! 🏆@[e-mail]/NwwPU9SQkd

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Mithen said he would seek permission from Queensland chief steward Josh Adams for jockey Parr to wear a black armband in the Guineas to honour Peter Bosustow.

Mithen explained how the name Bosustow came about for the young horse.

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“We are naming our horses after good Aussie rules footballers, regardless of where they come from,” Mithen said.

“We were sitting in the (sales) ring and we had the name Bosustow for this horse, before we even purchased him.

“(Racing broadcaster) Nigel Carmody came and sat at the table and said he loved the way we were calling these horses after footballers.

“I told him I was going to bid on this Blue Point yearling out of Bumbasina, which was a half (brother) to great WA mare Amelia’s Jewel.

“Nigel said because of Blue Point it had to be a Carlton footballer, and because of the WA connection with Amelia’s Jewel and Peter Bosustow, it had to be called Bosustow.

“So we stretched to $900,000 and purchased him.”

Peter Bosustow in the 1980s.

Mithen warned Bosustow would not be fully wound up on Saturday at the start of a winter campaign that would hopefully culminate in a Stradbroke tilt.

Bosustow is likely to need a ratings bump to qualify for the Stradbroke or to score a race which offers the winner a golden ticket into the Stradbroke.

After the Gold Coast on Saturday, Bosustow’s next start will be the Fred Best Classic at Eagle Farm on May 31 and the winner of that race gets ballot exemption in the Stradbroke.

Originally published as Anthony Mithen asks for black armband to be worn as tribute to AFL great Peter Bosustow at Gold Coast races on Saturday