Legendary Australian jockey Hugh Bowman has an outstanding book of rides for Saturday's 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.
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.
Those conditions, however, should not disadvantage 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.” – HKJC