Sean Bowen blog: ‘I do think he’s ready for this step up in grade’
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In the latest Sean Bowen blog with Coral, the Leading jockey looks forward to this weekend’s action and his two rides at Haydock on Saturday.
Sean Bowen blog
Even though we’ve lost a couple of meetings to the weather in recent days, it has been great to be back on the racecourse. It was a fantastic feeling to ride my first winner back on Pickanumber at Catterick on Monday, and thankfully I didn’t have to wait too long for my second with Clonakilty getting his head in front at Lingfield the following day.
I’ve been taking it easy this week and just trying to allow my body to get used to being back in the saddle, and thankfully the knee has responded really well. I’ll just have another quiet couple of days over the weekend, and then I’ll be kicking on and going flat out from Monday I’d say.
It’s so tight at the top of the championship, so I’m sure it will be a really exciting conclusion to the season. As I’ve said before, it’s just got to be a numbers game for me now, so I’ll have my head down and be looking to ride as many winners as I can between now and the end of the season. I get on really well with Harry, and he’s an excellent jockey, so I know I’ll have to be at the very top of my game if I’m going to get the better of him.
I have two nice rides at Haydock on Saturday before a day off on Sunday, so it would be lovely to get at least one winner this weekend!
This looks the perfect race for Butch because I think he’ll absolutely relish these conditions. He stayed every yard of the trip over at Cheltenham last time over three miles, and he appeared to have no issues with the heavy ground that day either, so I think a slog around Haydock in testing conditions will suit him just fine.
Even though this will require a career-best from him, I do think he’s ready for this step up in grade. It’s still early days for him, and a few of the others look more a good bit more exposed than he is. Sounds Russian is a good horse, but he’s been off the track for some time, and all his best form has come over fences. Botox Has probably looks the one we’ll all have to beat, but we are getting 6lb from him, and that could make all the difference in these testing conditions, so I’d say we go there with a solid chance.
I’ve not ridden Haiti Couleurs before so he’s not a horse I know an awful lot about, but I’d say he’ll need a big step forward on what he’s shown so far if he’s going to get competitive in a race like this.
He goes up to three miles for the first time under rules, and considering he has some decent form in the point-to-point field, that could see him step forward, but his current mark of 116 would leave him some way short of where he’d need to be to be winning this. I’d say whatever happens tomorrow though, he does look a nice horse for the future for the Rebecca Curtis team.
