It would have taken a lot to dislodge Willie Mullins from the limelight last weekend, but Sean Bowen’s (photographed) stunning climax to his championship-winning season gave him equal billing.
Following his five-timer at the recent Ffos Las meeting, his Irish Grand National win on Haiti Couleurs for Rebecca Curtis and seven winners in two days at Perth his dramatic triumph on Resplendent Grey in the Bet365 Gold Cup was the icing on the cake.
Bowen finished the season with 180 winners from 902 rides, a 20% strike rate. The Olly Murphy share of those was 103-364, a strike rate of 28%. and even though many were well fancied a £1 bet on every one of his runners would have yielded a £24.03 profit. He found time to ride for 96 other trainers.
About 40 family members and friends were at Sandown to see him formally presented with the champion jockey trophy, exactly ten years after being crowned champion conditional. His stated ambition for next season is to ride 200 winners.
Bowen has always possessed a McCoy-like determination to get the best out of a horse looking doomed to finish out the back. Racegoers with long memories may recall his win on Buachaill Alainn at Chepstow on 19 March 2015, which earned the tribute “stirring ride” from the Racing Post’s comments writer.
That begins after his stag party this week in Tenerife – organised by his brother James, who has had to drop out due to being required to ride Constitution Hill at Punchestown on Friday. He schooled him over eight little fences on Sunday. On his Unibet blog Nicky Henderson revealed that “the last time James sat on him was a few years ago when we finally discovered that he had an engine. He was the first person to discover that he was actually any good.”
With Lossiemouth, State Man, Brighterdaysahead and Golden Ace potentially in the lineup it could be the race of the season.
The highlight of Chepstow’s final jumps meeting of the season last Friday, the Dunraven Bowl, produced another popular result when sponsor David Brace’s Pink Eyed Pedro won it for the second time. His previous success was in 2019. The horse is now fourteen but judging by his tenacious finishing effort age has not withered him.
The rest of the card was dominated by top pro jockeys. Sam Twiston-Davies rode three winners and Harry Cobden and Gavin Sheehan two each.
David Probert won a fairly valuable two-year-old maiden at Leicester on Saturday aboard Clive Cox’s debutant Coppull. Despite the narrowness of the victory Wales’s top flat jockey rode a confident race, putting his stick down and relying on hands and heels in the last hundred yards. That was sufficient to encourage the horse to edge into the lead. The well-grown Coppull went off at 14/1 and didn’t have too hard a race. He could be a Royal Ascot prospect.
Our next meeting at Ffos Las is Tuesday 6th May, the day after the next Bank Holiday
