Champion Jockey Nears Milestone As A Chance To Join The Greats Becomes More Likely

The off-season and summer weather is no reason for champion jump jockey Sean Bowen to slow down as he remarkably nears 50 winners just over two months into the new campaign.

The Welshman notched up his 46th winner of the season on Sunday and continues to be the standout name over jumps in the early part of the campaign.

Bowen, who was crowned champion for the first time at the end of April, has revealed aspirations to ride 200 winners. That achievement has only been done once this decade, by Brian Hughes, but he is arguably riding better than ever. Sir AP McCoy achieved it nine times while Richard Johnson also recorded the feat.

His 26 winners in May were achieved with a quite remarkable 33 per cent strike-rate, while his 20 in June at 30 per cent. They are among the best spells of his career.

Last week he was advertising his talents across the country, riding a winner in south Devon at Newton Abbot before scoring at Cartmel, based in the Lake District, just a few days later. 

Uttoxeter’s card on Sunday is one of the main highlights in the summer jumps calendar and he came away with two winners, aboard odds-on favourite Laravie and Tara Iti in the last.

He is set to be busy once again, starting at Stratford on Tuesday, Worcester on Wednesday before heading north to Perth. He returns to home soil on Friday, with two rides already booked at Bangor.

Memorable winner

There was a big winner for Welsh owner-breeder John Deer at Carlisle on Wednesday with his leading prospect Saqqara Sands.

She bolted clear in the Listed Eternal Stakes to continue to prove an exciting prospect for her owners, who are synonymous with the brilliant multiple top-level winner Al Kazeem.

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Saqqara Sands, who is trained in England by Ralph Beckett, was winning her biggest race having posted back-to-back seconds at the same level.

Victory is important as it makes her a more attractive prospect for breeding when she heads into her second career at Oakgrove Stud, situated next door to Chepstow racecourse, and she could go on to produce more stars of the future in Deer’s blue and white silks.

Her connections will now plot bigger targets while she could be even better when conditions become a bit wetter in the autumn.

ITV action

Sandown is the big meeting this weekend and there will be Welsh interest with jockey Danny Muscutt to ride one of the leading contenders on ITV.

He has an exciting ride in Pina Sonata in the Listed Distaff (3.00) which is the warm-up to the Group 1 Eclipse on the card.

The three-year-old has won back-to-back races and could be a big ride for the adopted Welshman Muscutt as she has Group 1 entries later in the summer, including in the Nassau at Glorious Goodwood.

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David Probert will not be in action as he serves a seven-day suspension.

Evans flying

If you are looking for a Welsh trainer to follow then look no further than David Evans.

The stable based in Pandy, Monmouthshire, followed last Monday’s Chepstow winner with success at Brighton with Alice’s Impact and a 5-1 success with Level Up at Leicester. His only other runner to go off a single-figure price finished third.

That brings his tally to 25 winners for the campaign while Level Up will look to follow up his win at Chepstow on Wednesday.

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