The Fordham Company

When Hugh Bowman was supposedly concentrating in the classroom at Sydney’s exclusive The Scots College in Year 11, his mind kept wandering to what it would be like to take on the challenge of the turf.

After all, the country lad – born at Mudgee and reared as a youngster at nearby Dunedoo – had been used to riding horses long before he can ever remember.

“Although I can’t remember exactly when I first sat on a horse, I gather it was before I walked,” says the man who has gone on to win Sydney’s apprentice and senior jockey premierships in the past decade.

Bowman’s love affair with horses stretches back to when his parents Jim and Mandy moved to Dunedoo – when Hugh was eight – to manage a family property not far from his grandfather Bruce Bowman’s cattle and sheep stud.

It was during this time that Hugh first became acquainted with horses.

He was a star at local pony club championships, winning the best under 12 rider crown when he was only seven. As a youngster, he was also making a mark at polo crosse, a sport, he says, he was forced to take up because he was far too small to play rugby league, which remains one of his favourite sports.

“Playing polocrosse gave me my first competitive experience sitting on a horse,” he recalls. “Before then, riding a horse was just a lot of fun, removed from any challenges”.

During school holidays in his final two years at The Scots College young Bowman often rode in barrier trials at Gilgandra to test his mettle.

Eventually, he made the call that remaining at The Scots College to complete his HSC wasn’t for him and that a career as a jockey offered a lot more appealing.

The former champion country jockey Billy Aspros gave him with his break at Bathurst in 1997, taking him on as an apprentice. Bowman, in turn, repaid his master’s investment by winning the Central Districts and Western Districts apprentice championships for the next two years.

The budding hoop won 150 winners during this time, with word spreading that a young bloke named Hugh Bowman was destined for higher honours.

Bowman will never forget those days.

“Billy Aspros and his wife Leanne provided wonderful guidance and backed this with friendship and support that enabled me to get a kick start riding racehorses,” he recalls.

Now was the time to test himself in the razor-sharp Sydney racing environment.

Fortunately for Bowman, he struck up a partnership in 1999 with the former great jockey and then trainer Ron Quinton.

Ironically, Bowman and Quinton soon learned they’d had much in common. Quinton was born in Dunedoo and grew up in Mendooran where young Bowman lived until he was 15.

“Meeting and working with Ron Quinton was a turning point in my life,” says the current Sydney premiership hoop. “He was then, and still is, the person I look to for advice and support”.

In his first season in Sydney, Bowman won the apprenticeship title with 68 winners, more than double the next best performer. He was therefore well primed when his apprenticeship finished in 2001 for the bigger challenge.

Following a relatively short-term riding experience in Ireland, during which time he collected a big win for famous trainer Kevin Prendergast on Premier Dane at Fairyhouse – the home of the Irish Grand National – it was time to return to Sydney to get serious about a riding career.

A decade on, and it’s working out well for Hugh Bowman.

Since 2004, he’s piloted 21 Group 1 winners on top of booting home 98 winners to win the 2008-2009 Sydney jockeys premiership. With the premiership win came the inaugural Bart Cummings Medal, which Bowman considers one of the high points of his career to date.

In the current season (2011-2012), Bowman has kicked home 85 winners, a 19 per cent strike rate.

In reviewing his metropolitan achievements, he’s not one to forget his earlier baptism.

“My first-ever win was on Slats, a horse named after the former Wallabies halfback Peter Slattery at the Wellington picnic races in October 1996,” he says. “And my first ride was several months earlier – without success – on a horse owned by father, Go Campese, named after another Wallabies great David Campese, at the Mungerie picnics”.

Four Group 1 wins in 2008 – on Samantha Miss in the VRC Oaks, Champagne Stakes and Two Flight Stakes and Racing To Win in the All Age Stakes – backed up earlier Group 1 triumphs on Defier (Doomben Cup 2004), Courts in Session (George Ryder Stakes 2005), Red Oog (Doomben Ten Thousand 2005), Vitesse Dane (Queensland Oaks 2005), Cheeky Choice (Flight Stakes 2006), Red Oog (T J Smith Stakes 2006), He’s No Pie Eater (Rosehill Guineas 2007), Desert War (Ranvet Stakes 2007), Samantha Miss (Flight Stakes 2008) and Daffodil (Australian Oaks 2009).

Oh, and by the way, Bowman has also ridden winners in seven million dollar races.

So where does Hugh Bowman go from here?

“My goal is to consolidate my Sydney premiership success and do it again and again,” he says.

“I want to be the best at what I do and consistency is the most important ingredient. Only over a period of time can someone’s success and reputation be properly judged”.

And a final observation from the young man who put away his text books at age 17 to learn about life’s challenges from a different perspective.

“Consistency at all levels is what it’s all about. That’s what’s driving me and should drive anyone who is prepared to take on a challenge”.