Modest professionalism had Hugh Bowman conceding that he could not have ridden his five winners at Randwick’s Kensington circuit without the right horses.
He just failed to make it six when going down narrowly aboard Juventus in the final race.
“I couldn’t stand the joint before today,” Bowman admitted.
With eight rides on the nine races carded for the afternoon, Bowman owned the day, winning five of the events, and going within a head of nabbing a sixth.
Hugh Bowman (Hamish Niven Photography)
After winning aboard Yonkers in the second race, he made it a double in the fifth with Spendthrift Australia’s Dirty Work before stringing together an unbroken sequence of four triumphs that also included Rocha Clock, Hightail and Phaistos.
Coming into the last, Bowman’s mount Juventus was understandably backed into favourite and went within 0.2-lengths.
Bowman was crowned champion NSW country apprentice in his first year of riding and champion Sydney apprentice in 1999/2000.
He rode his first GrI winner in 2004 when partnering the Guy Walter-trained Defier to victory in the Doomben Cup and has ridden GrI winners every season since.
Bowman finished runner-up to Darren Beadman in the 2004/05 Sydney jockeys premiership and has been in the top echelon of Sydney riders since winning the title in 2008/09.
Last season Bowman rode 120 winners and the most successful stable partnership in the past year has been Chris Waller followed by Peter and Paul Snowden.
