Top Jumps Jockey Sean Bowen returns to talk us through his rides for the weekend, a brief Noble Yeats update and of course the weather.
We have sponsored Sean for a while now, and we’re extremely excited to unleash his blog on site to give you an insight into the weighing room, the latest on his big weekend rides and opinion on all the big races! Follow Sean’s blog each week for his thoughts exclusively.
About Sean
At 25 years old Sean has now established himself as one of the top riders in UK Jumps racing. He was Champion Conditional Jockey in 2015 and has gone from strength-to-strength ever since. He won his first Grade 1 with on If The Cap Fits in 2019 in the Liverpool Hurdle, and his latest one was on Metier in the Tolworth Hurdle last season. Sean currently sits second in the Jump Jockey Championship.
Whip Rules
This is certainly a hot topic in the industry at the moment. 100% people are riding differently as they are a whole different type of rules, you either sort yourself out or you get banned. So for myself, I’ve I’ve changed the way I use my whip quite a lot and I’ve been getting getting quite a few lessons on trying to sort of change my whip action a little bit. It’s obviously very, very frustrating for a lot of people to just try and change their riding but we have to accept these are the rules and unless unless you work to them you are going to get yourself a big ban.
Bill Baxter – 1.15 Kelso
I’m up at Kelso on Saturday and Bill Baxter is my opening ride. The track will suit ground as will. I chooled with him yesterday and he seems in very good form. He actually has has an F (fall) by his name from last time, but he didn’t really deserve it. He took a false step after the fence and tripped himself over, but he was going very well at the time. So hopefully, he’s still nicely handicapped and going around there on nice ground hopefully he’s got a good chance.
Luttrell Lad – 1.50 Kelso
He has some very good bumper form with Philip Hobbs and some good enough hurdle form as well. It’s obviously his first run for Tom Lacey so just a horse looking to get a bit of get a bit back to a bit of form, but at the same time you know he has the ability to run that sort of race. He has a chance but at the same time you you would be completely relying on it.
Clay Rodgers – 3.00 Kelso
He has gone on a winning run but is obviously going up in the handicap as a consequence. He did win very nicely last time and Ollie didn’t really expect it after having a little break. He won nicely and has gone up another six which which makes life harder. However, when a horse like that gets on a winning run you never know how high the bar is.
Cheltenham On The Horizon
There’s plenty of riding to be done between now and the Festival, but at the same time you can feel the excitement building, and it’s no different in the weighing room. I should have rides there each day this year, which is obviously great. I will be previewing these next week here on my blog so make sure you keep an eye on GG!