The Bowens’ love affair with the Summer Plate shows no sign of ending any time soon.
At the weekend it was Mickey’s turn to get his hands on the trophy for the first time. Market Rasen’s signature contest, probably the most prestigious race staged over jumps in Britain during the summer months, has been dominated by the Bowens for the best part of three decades.
Peter won it an incredible eight times when he held the trainer’s licence, firstly with Stately Home in 1997 and lastly with dual winner Francky du Berlais four years ago. He also scored in the race with Snoopy Loopy in 2008, who just a few months later scooped Grade 1 glory when taking advantage of Kauto Star’s final fence blunder to win the Betfair Chase at Aintree.
Sean Bowen has ridden the winner once and brother James now has three successes in the race to his name, having teamed up with Mickey to land Saturday’s running in thrilling fashion with Queensbury Boy.
The seven-year-old joined the Bowens’ Haverfordwest yard last October, bought out of the David Maxwell dispersal sale at Cheltenham for £75,000 after a promising novice hurdling campaign with Harry Derham.
Queensbury Boy’s only success since his transfer came when he was handed a walkover at Hereford in May, but the Bowens had him spot-on for his trip to Lincolnshire.
Held up in midfield by James Bowen, Queensbury Boy made headway rounding the home turn and disputed the lead at the last, eventually taking command in the final strides to deny favourite Kingston Narcissus by a neck.
It capped a fine day for the family at the track. Sean had already landed the first two races on the card, teaming up with Gordon Elliott to bag the opening novice hurdle with Master Haku, then winning the valuable Summer Handicap Hurdle on board High Fibre for James Owen.
Meanwhile, Jack Tudor’s new role as stable jockey to Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero got off to the perfect start. The Welsh rider, a rising star of the National Hunt weighing room, is linking up with the Cheshire yard which is becoming a growing force in the sport.
And Tudor began in style, winning a two-mile handicap hurdle at Uttoxeter for the stable on board King Ulanda. He will continue riding for David Pipe’s yard, where he has been stable jockey for the past two seasons.
Rossa Ryan (photographed) was a man in a hurry at Ffos Las last week.
Ryan landed the first three races on the card at the Gwendraeth Valley track – all three of them on promising sprinters.
He got off the mark in the opening six-furlong maiden on 4-7 favourite Jaan Ki Tukri. The two-year-old, trained by Clive Cox, was down in grade after finishing a close-up ninth in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot last month.
He put his experience to good use, exploding out of the stalls and having his rivals stretched out a long way from home before passing the post four lengths in front of second-placed Louis The Fifth.
Ryan had to work a little harder in the following two-year-old event over five furlongs, pushing out the even-money shot Tallahassee Lassie to win by a length after repelling the determined challenge of Our Fella.
He quickly bagged his hat-trick as Star Velocity won the five-furlong maiden, digging deep to overhaul Queen Sana in the final 100 yards. He made it four for the day later on when Homeland took a 10-furlong handicap for Monmouth trainer Thomas Faulkner.
The next meeting at Ffos Las is on the evening of Tuesday, July 28.
Gwent trainer Grace Harris continued her fine summer form when enjoying a double at Chepstow’s midweek meeting.
She landed a five-furlong sprint when So Smart saw off stablemate Savannah Smiles, then made it two when Too Much Trevor got the better of a tight finish in a seven-furlong event.
David Probert was among the winners at Newmarket’s Saturday meeting, getting the verdict in a photo-finish on board Spring Bloom in a six-furlong handicap.
