Leading Australian compatriot Zac Purton by just one win in the 2023/24 Hong Kong jockeys’ championship, Hugh Bowman hopes to successfully harness Caspar Fownes’ powerful start to the season when the pair combines at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (4 October).
With 11 wins and 10 minor placings from 50 rides so far this season, Bowman narrowly holds sway in the jockey title race from six-time Hong Kong champion Purton (10 wins and 20 minor placings from 57 mounts), while Fownes sits second behind Francis Lui (11 wins) in the trainers’ standings with eight victories.
Bowman has provided two of Fownes’ winners so far – Lucky Gor and June Planet – and he reunites with the latter in the Class 4 Shum Wan Handicap (1650m) at Happy Valley tomorrow evening as Fownes looks to close the gap to Lui.
“He’s hit the ground running this season, Caspar, and I know he prepared his team to do exactly that and the results are coming thick and fast and hopefully they continue to do so on Wednesday evening,” Bowman said.
“It was a good win last time by June Planet, he’s been a consistent horse since he arrived here. Last time I rode him with the blinkers on, I couldn’t get him to relax but he still battled on and the other night when I rode him without the blinkers, he relaxed and that’s one thing I would be hopeful of again – that it’s a good, fast-run race, which I think plays to his strength.
“He’s effective at the track and I think he can do a repeat at the track.”
Bowman also partners Explosive Witness for four-time Hong Kong champion Fownes in the Class 3 Nam Fung Handicap (1000m), where Harmony N Blessed bids for his fifth win at the course and distance for David Hayes and Derek Leung.