Dual BMW Hong Kong Derby-winning jockey Hugh Bowman has an outstanding book of rides for Saturday’s (9 April) Queen Elizabeth Stakes meeting, which may see him edge ever closer to the milestone of 100 Group 1 winners on home soil.
Bowman, 41, has rides in each of the four Group 1 races which form part of the seven-race card at Randwick Racecourse, Sydney, to be simulcast by The Hong Kong Jockey Club.
With more than 150mm of rain forecast in Sydney this week, the Randwick track is almost certain to be again rated heavy, as was the case for Day One of The Championships last Saturday (2 April).
Those conditions, however, should not disadvatange Bowman’s mount Montefilia in the headline G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m). Montefilia is one of seven individual Group 1 winners in the nine-horse field and is a last start winner of the G1 Ranvet Stakes (2000m) on heavy ground.
Bowman, an Australian Hall of Fame jockey, has ridden 97 Group 1 winners at home and a further five abroad. He’s won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes on four occasions, partnering Winx to three successive wins in 2017-18-19 and was also successful on Reliable Man in 2013.
“She has had a fantastic preparation and I think she’s going to be right in it. I feel she’s at her best at 2000 metres and it was quite a dominant display in the Ranvet,” Bowman said of Montefilia before adding, “It’s one heck of race and every horse deserves to be there.”
Her opposition includes the reigning Horse of the Year and G1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) winner Verry Elleegant, who finished second to Montefilia in the Ranvet Stakes, along with outstanding last start winners Zaaki and Duais, plus three-year-old Anamoe, who was runner-up to State Of Rest in last year’s G1 Cox Plate (2040m) and was a last start six-length winner of the G1 Rosehill Guineas (2000m).
Bowman rides last start winners Honeycreeper and Promise Of Success, respectively, in the G1 Australian Oaks (2400m) and G1 Queen of the Turf Stakes (1600m). His G1 Sydney Cup (3200m) mount is The Chosen One who is yet to win at 3200 metres but was beaten a head in 2020, a closing sixth last year and has finished top-five in each of the past two Melbourne Cups.
“I know he’s (The Chosen One) giving weight to every runner but I feel he is in better shape this year than compared to last year when I also rode him in the Tancred Stakes and Sydney Cup and with a bit more luck, he could have run second in the Tancred at his last start,” Bowman said.
Bowman’s 97 Australian Group 1 wins is second only to Damien Oliver (122) among currently active jockeys. James McDonald, 30, last season’s champion Group 1 rider and clear of the pack this season with nine top level wins, will ride Verry Elleegant. Her trainer Chris Waller said “she would strip fitter” for her last start second to Montefilia.
