Sean Bowen weekend rides blog: 'This horse has an excellent course record'

Coral ambassador and leading jockey Sean Bowen gives this thoughts on his rides this weekend at Cheltenham.

Another busy Saturday to look forward to, starting with Static in the Grade 2 juvenile hurdle. This ex-French runner made a promising start for Olly [Murphy] when finishing second to a nice sort at Wetherby, and that looks a solid level form to bring here. At this early stage of the season you just don’t know how good some of these young hurdlers are, so we don’t know what we’re up against.

He was a little bit quirky in France, running out a couple of times, but he was straightforward enough at Wetherby, and jumped well. He does have to carry a penalty here because of his French wins, but he should improve for his first run.

Western Zephyr won very nicely at Carlisle last month, he looks a horse who goes well fresh at this time of year, so it’s good to be on him again here.  My concern is that all is best form is on right-handed tracks, and he can hang right, so going left-handed here is a concern. That said, he’s a good jumper, he likes to front run, so if he acts going this way round, he has an each-way chance.

Fugitif has an excellent course record, finishing fourth in this race last year, and then winning the December Gold Cup, and has run well in many other races here. It’s a competitive race as you’d expect, with runners with Grade One form in here, but my fellow clearly enjoys these big field handicaps here, and is only rated a pound higher than when he won the race here last December, so he must have a chance of being in the mix.

I’ve ridden this fellow plenty of times, and he’s another with excellent course form. He’s been off since his run at this meeting last year, so I’m sure he’ll improve for this. He’s off a low weight here, which will help him, but it’s a competitive handicap hurdle and winning it first time up is a big ask.

Frustrating is how I’d sum up this horse’s autumn so far! Three times I thought we were going to win, three times we’ve finished second.  I don’t think he’s ungenuine or anything though, he’s just been a bit unlucky. I’m sure he’ll run another solid race, whether he’s quite good enough in what looks a wide open heat, remains to be seen.

A nice looking spare to end the day, this mare won her first Bumper very nicely back in June. Her trainer, Fergal O’Brien, runs three here, so I’m sure he has an idea of how they rate against each other, but I’m very happy to be riding for him at a track he does well at, and it would be no surprise to see her run well. 

This is a horse that Olly Murphy thinks a lot of. He jumped well at Stratford last time out when scoring on his first start for the yard. This is a step up in class for him, but we are confident he can make it. He was staying on well at the finish at Stratford, so I think there is much more to come from him.

He did well to win at Perth last time out when he wasn’t in 100% form. This is his first start since having a wind-op. Hopefully, that procedure will have sharpened him up. There are only four runners in this field, and he has the lowest weight allocation of them all. I expect a big run from him.

It was a good run last time at Exeter where he was narrowly beaten on his seasonal reappearance. We know this horse stays well, so this trip will be perfect for him. I schooled him yesterday and he schooled well. Warren is looking forward to running him. It looks a competitive handicap chase, but we should be in the mix.

I won the Imperial Cup on this horse at Sandown last season. He is a good horse who has run in all the big handicaps. He had a wind-op since his last run at Ffos Las. I am sure this horse will pop up and win another lucrative handicap prize at some point this winter. Hopefully, it will be in this Greatwood Hurdle.

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