Melbourne Cup 2015: Win would leave hoop Hugh Bowman unchallenged on the sport’s summit

HUGH Bowman is a jockey and horseman who herded cattle with his father, Jim, at an age when city kids had trainer wheels on their bikes writes RICHARD HINDS

IN a coffee shop in the palatial foyer of Melbourne’s Crown Towers hotel, about 950km and one million light years from his home town Dunedoo, you chat with Hugh Bowman the champion jockey.

In his pleasant country drawl Bowman recites, yet again, the landmarks of a wonderful career. The life-changing suspension, the steadying marriage, the cathartic time in England.

Then you ask about the horse. Not Winx, the brilliant mare that gave Bowman his greatest victory in the Cox Plate, or Preferment, his Melbourne Cup ride. Just the horse.

Suddenly Bowman’s ears prick like a frisky thoroughbred and there is a discernible transformation. You are no longer talking to the jockey but the horseman.

The boy who herded cattle with his father, Jim, at an age when city kids had trainer wheels on their bikes. The son and grandson of born and bred farmers for whom saddling a horse was as much a part of the daily ritual as a razor shave.

‘’I think that’s my best attribute, my ability to ride the horse,’’ says Bowman. Which seems like Daniel Ricciardo suggesting his best attribute is his driver’s licence.

But Bowman does not mean merely getting on a horse’s back. He means knowing a horse, feeling what is beneath him. The knowledge acquired during thousands of youthful hours in the saddle that make riding, for him, as intuitive as walking.

VICTORIA OAKS: Ambience bursts into the frame

While other jockeys race, Bowman is still herding those cattle. ‘’With stock work it’s about anticipating where they are going to go, having that sense of movement. Control the horse, control the cattle, you’ve got to position yourself exactly in the right position.’’

Champion Jockey, Hugh Bowman on the Flemington Finish Post. Pic: Jay Town.

Yet it took Bowman a long time to exploit this natural advantage. It was only when he stopped trying to be a jockey and returned to being a rider than his long-held ambition of becoming the best of his profession became reality. And not even usually parochial Victorians now doubt Bowman is the best.

After he won the Cox Plate with a ride that was more like a magic trick, he received more than 150 messages from colleagues and friends. ‘’It wasn’t just ‘Well done, mate’,’’ says Bowman. ‘’The nice thing was it was really heartfelt.’’

This outpouring was an expression of the amiable Bowman’s popularity. But it also reflected the decision he took upon returning from England six years ago to stop being a single-minded competitor and to again be a rider.

It took my parents a while to understand I wasn’t in dark alleys with a needle living a life of self-destruction

‘’In England it’s about riding the horse, it’s not about riding the race,’’ says Bowman. ‘’In Australia our industry is driven by the punting dollar and sometimes the horse gets lost in the operation. At the end of the day the horse is the sport.’’

This change of attitude left Bowman more relaxed and unlocked a treasure trove. That innate horsemanship that provides an edge over those who obsess about the finish line.

‘’You get weighed down (by the focus on betting),’’ says Bowman. ‘’You think you should be riding to keep people happy, not to keep the horse happy. I think it’s a mistake a lot of riders make.’’

Bowman boarded at Scots College before becoming a jockey at 16. But with his ears sticking out from beneath his baseball cap, it is far easier to imagine him on a brumby than in a board room. He laughs when you suggest the arrest of the fugitive Stoccos meant his Cox Plate victory was no longer the most exciting thing to happen in Dunedoo.

But an easygoing nature should not be mistaken for a lack of ambition. Bowman recites like an accountant the number of winners he rode to become the leading bush rider and, later, the leading city apprentice.

Bowman talks unprompted about his six month suspension for cocaine use in 2002 when he was 21. Largely because the period proved a blessing — once he had convinced his family he was just another kid having a good time, not a lost soul.

“It took my parents a while to understand I wasn’t in dark alleys with a needle living a life of self-destruction, although it can certainly go that way,’’ he says. ‘’Once they understood that was the way society had gone, it wasn’t that unusual, they were ‘Okay, it’s not the end of the world, let’s help him back on his way’. I’m very lucky to have that. Not everyone does.’’

Hugh Bowman riding Grand Marshal during a trackwork session at Flemington Racecourse.

A heavyweight rider who had been warned he would be retired before he was 30, the suspension might have crushed some. But in the four months he herded cattle in northern Queensland, Bowman’s determination grew.

Where does a seemingly laid-back soul find such determination? ‘’I’ve never been driven by money,’’ says Bowman. ‘’I’ve never been driven by anything other than success by which I mean to get the best out of myself.’’

Bowman has had some valuable help, particularly from his agent Brian Haskins who remains a guiding light, and a succession of trainers. He went from Dubbo trainer Leanne Aspros and her bush legend jockey husband Bill Aspros, to a city apprenticeship with Ron Quinton, to a decade-long partnership with the late Guy Walter and, now, to a prolific association with Chris Waller who he calls ‘’a very complex individual, the most organised person I know’’.

Bowman speaks with particular affection about Walter, a fellow horseman. He can still hear Walter’s voice as he legged him up on something they both fancied: ‘’’The reason you’re on it is because I want you to make the decisions’,’’ Bowman recalls Walter saying. ‘’You couldn’t give a jockey more confidence to ride a race.’’

For the horseman, confidence is everything. ‘’Horses are sensitive animals, more sensitive than people,’’ says Bowman. ‘’If you’re nervous or lack confidence the horse will sense it. At some stage my confidence will be down and there will be a lull. But at the moment I get on anything and they might not win, but they run to a premium, and that’s because of the confidence. They feel your energy.’’

Hugh Bowman and wife Christine after he rode Winx to victory in the Cox Plate.

The Cox Plate took a weight from Bowman’s mind. A Melbourne Cup win would leave him unchallenged on the sport’s summit. His wife Christine has already won it. She travelled from Ireland in 2002 with Media Puzzle while working for trainer Dermot Weld.

Upon her return to Ireland, Christine had planned to go to the US but enjoyed Australia so much she flipped a coin. Australia won and she got a job working for Quinton where the couple met. They now have two daughters, Bambi 2, and Paige 18 weeks. Which Bowman admits can make life hectic for a man whose enjoys solitude when wasting for a big ride.

When you ask about Preferment’s chances in the Melbourne Cup the horseman becomes the jockey - ‘’he’s got the right pedigree, the physical stature, he’s a beautiful athlete, he’s great winded, he’ll get the distance, right weight ...’’

You add the final point: ‘’And an in-form rider?’’

Bowman doesn’t miss a beat: ‘’In-form rider and a stable that’s taking all before them.’’

It is a sound bite prepared for the punting industry. But, you now know, for Bowman it is all about the horse.

THE EXTRAORDINARY RECORD OF HUGH BOWMAN

Age 35

Career highlights

Sydney premier jockey: 2008-09, 2011-12, 2014-15

Sydney premier apprentice: 1999-2000

Career wins: over 1700

Group 1 wins: 55

Major wins

Cox Plate — Winx (2015)

Queen Elizabeth Stakes — Reliable Man (2013)

ATC Australian Derby — Criterion (2014)

ATC Australian Oaks — Daffodil (2009), Streama (2012)

Victoria Derby — Lion Tamer (2010), Sangster (2011), Polanski (2013)

Victoria Oaks — Samantha Miss (2008), Set Square (2014)

The BMW — Fiveandahalfstar (2013)

Epsom Handicap — Winx (2015)

Emirates Stakes — Wall Street (2010

Sydney Cup — Mourayan (2013)

Caulfield Guineas — Press Statement (2015)

Golden Rose — In Top Swing (2003), Doonan (2004), Duporth (2008), Hallowed Crown (2014)

Darley Classic — Terravista (2014)