You could also compare him to Peter Scudamore (especially in his Pipe years) who was also year on year out churning out the winners at the lower grade but didn’t have as much success at the highest level.
I can understand why JP went with Cobden because he has all that big time G1 experience riding for Nicholls and is not someone who would be travelling up and down the country chasing every ride for a Jockey’s Title. Unfortunately for Bowen, you can’t get G1 experience unless you ride in G1 races and if the rides are all accounted for you can’t get the experience needed….it is a vicious circle.
I for one don’t think his ride in the Gold Cup on HC was a particularly ‘bad ride’ per say, he was on the most confirmed stayer who is also best suited by front running and grinding rivals into the ground (a la Native River) so it wasn’t unexpected to see him push the pace from the front like he did.
I just don’t think the horse is a G1 chaser, there is such a big leap from being a top long distance staying chaser (at distances further than the Gold Cup) to then being a G1 chaser. The two times he has tried G1 company has resulted in him being pulled up both times (in the Betfair he never travelled a yard so you could arguably give him a pass for that) but even his 7L Denman Chase win over L’Homme Presse was not anything to write home about, as a repeat of that performance in the Gold Cup itself would still have only seen him finish a distant 5th (given that LHP did actually finish 5th himself beaten some 25L and 9L behind 4th placed Grey Dawning).
It was interesting listening to Matt Chapman speaking to the jockeys coming back to weigh-in following the Gold Cup because he said to Bowen something along the lines of ‘he travelled well for a long way’ to which Bowen said ‘he never travelled a yard with me’. I re-watched the race because my initial thoughts were that he did travel well enough to lead them for so long and while he was niggled along at various times during the race I found it hard to understand Bowen’s comment.
Upon further reflection, I can only put it down to the fact that he was simply out of his ‘comfort zone’ (god I am starting to hate that saying) because he was having to go a G1 Championship pace from the start rather than the more sedate pace they go in Irish/Welsh Nationals.
I think they need to realistically look at going back to races like the Welsh National and/or Grand National/Irish National/Bet365 Cup as he will be 10 next season and I don’t think he will be getting quicker now……unless we get a Gold Cup on heavy ground like we did for the year Master Oats won.