Sean Bowen rode four winners at Perth on Thursday to pass the half-century mark for the season and regain the lead in the jockeys’ title race from Harry Skelton. All four were for Olly Murphy. Two of them were having only their second or third start for the yard; the other pair had won last time out.
Bowen led Skelton 51-49 at the beginning of this week, while a brilliant September for his brother James – 11 winners from 26 mounts – has seen him climb to third place in the title chase with 33. He scored at Perth on Neil Mulholland’s Hidden Depth, who has been switching between the flat and chasing.
James’s latest was at Market Rasen on Saturday, riding the Bowen family favourite Francky Du Berlais to an all-the-way victory. The eleven-year-old has struggled since winning his second Summer Plate there two years ago, losing 22 races in a row, but here at last he faced a small field on good going at a track where he always runs well. It was won at the start, where he pinched a five-length lead with no exertion and soon extended it to ten, which the others could never peg back.
David Probert made it 98 for the year on Andrew Balding’s filly Music Piece at Haydock on Saturday. She’d finished second at Ascot over a mile on soft ground earlier this month and handled similar going adequately. Probert was keen to settle her in the testing conditions and gave her every encouragement in the closing stages while resorting to his stick only once. Her lead was diminishing but she still had half a length in hand at the post and pricked her ears at that point. There is plenty of stamina in her breeding and given better ground next spring she could be up to Oaks trials standard.
Wales can take some pride in Sean D Bowen, who is closing in on the title for flat racing’s champion apprentice, for his father comes from Carmarthenshire. His first couple of years riding in Ireland brought just eight winners, but in 2023 he rode 21. After taking a few months off in the winter he came over to this side of the Irish Sea and hasn’t looked back; winners flowed freely – 40 so far. A fruitful alliance with the up-and-coming trainer James Owen accounts for almost half of them.
Chepstow’s Jump Season Opener, the established curtain raiser to the main part of the season, is now less than two weeks away. The highlight of the first day, Friday 11 October, is the Grade 2 Persian War Novices Hurdle, a race notable for producing future staying chasers. Paul Nicholls, who targets this meeting, has won it eight times. There’s also a Veterans Chase and the Welsh Jump Jockeys Derby, a charity race on the flat. Saturday the 12th features the Silver Trophy Hurdle – which Philip Hobbs has won four times, more often than Nicholls – and the Native River Chase, which can be a stepping stone for Grand National-standard stayers.
