Top Sydney racing journalist Ken Callander was very adamant that Sydney’s leading rider Hugh Bowman got off very lightly after only being fined $1000 in weighing in overweight on More Rocco at Rosehill on Saturday.
Sydney jockey Hugh Bowman received a $1,000 fine for weighing in overweight at Rosehill - photo © Taron Clarke
Bowman possibly cost punters a result when More Rocco finished fourth, 1.6 lengths from the winner and just over half a length from the third horse Earnest Ernest and subsequently weighted in after the race in excess of 1kg.
Had Bowman rode at the correct weight, More Rocco could possibly have finished third, thus affecting each way, place and trifecta punters as well as first fours.
“A $1000 fine for a jockey pulling in half a million a year is laughable. Bowman earned more than double that for riding the first winner of the day, Grand Business.” Callander wrote.
“If it did it cost each-way punters tens of thousands of dollars not to mention what it cost trifecta and first four punters.”
Bowman who was recovering from a mid week sickness, pleaded guilty to Stewards for being overweight and was only issued with a $1000 fine after his good record for this type of offence was taken into account.
Rosehill Stewards also fined apprentice Jackson Matthews $500 and suspended him from July 8 to July 14 after causing interference over the concluding stages when he won on Kirinata in the Benchmark 80 Hanidacap.
Bowman is approaching his thirty second birthday and is on the verge of winning his second Sydney jockey’s premiership after claiming the title in 2008-2009 and believes his best years are in front of him.
“I remember when I was about twenty-four and thinking I want to be on level terms with the Beadmans and the Munces and the Olivers and Cassidys and what have you,” Bowman said.
“Paddy Payne at the time was riding in all the big carnivals, getting the choice weight for age horses, and I was thinking, ‘when can I expect this to happen to me, if ever?’ And I sort of set my goal at 33.”
“I just reckon that’s a good age because you are old enough to have the miles under your belt but you’ve still got youth on your side.”
“So I reckon thirty-three to forty depending on how hard you want to work.”
Bowman claimed four Group 1s for the season, winning the $1.5m AAMI Victoria Derby (2500m) at Flemington on Sangster as well as the as the $350,000 Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m) at Warwick Farm.
And the top rider is very keen to renew his association with Streama in the Spring after winning the $400,000 Flight Stakes (1600m) at Rosehill in the Spring last year and the $550,000 Australian Oaks (2400m) at Randwick in the Autumn.
“She’ll go to the Myer Classic and that’s her go,” Bowman said.
“Her best win was the Flight Stakes. She was just dominant that day. We’ve seen how convincing she is over the shorter trips and Sea Siren has come out and franked the form of her first and second-up runs so I think that’s a pretty good guide.”
