Bowen off to fast start at Emerald meet

AUBURN, Wash. – Rocco Bowen, who has never won a riding title at any track, will look to keep rolling Saturday at Emerald Downs when he rides likely favorite Belt in the featured race, a $25,000 claimer for older horses who have never won two races. First post for the nine-race card is 2 p.m. Pacific.

Bowen got off to a blazing start at Emerald Downs last weekend, following up a three-win effort on Saturday’s opening day with another three-bagger Sunday. In addition to taking an early leg up in the rider standings, Bowen joined Kevin Radke as the only Emerald riders to win six races over the first two days of a meeting. Radke had six wins over the first two days in 2003. The three-day record for wins is seven, jointly held by Vann Belvoir (1996), Radke (2002), and Juan Gutierrez (2013), a mark Bowen could surpass with his five mounts Saturday.

Bowen, 24, began riding in his native Barbados and was just 15 when he rode his first winner in 2004. He recorded his first North American victory at Hastings in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2007. Bowen rode the next four summers at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, arriving at Emerald Downs in the spring of 2012 with more than 200 wins under his belt.

While Bowen wasn’t necessarily a finished product, he was good enough to finish fifth in the 2012 Emerald standings and make a positive impression on trainer Tom Wenzel. When Wenzel needed an emergency rider for the stakes-winning 3-year-old Makors Finale, he called on Bowen, who would steer Makors Finale to a win in the Emerald Derby. Less than two years later, Bowen is 9 for 27 in stakes races at Emerald Downs.

Bowen has been an asset for horseplayers as well. Last season at Emerald, his average $2 win mutuel was $13.20, the highest of any rider in the top 10 in the jockey standings. Among Bowen’s six winners last weekend were Always the Same ($12.20), Redsolocup ($14), and Hip Hop City ($12.80).

Belt headlines a field of five in the 5 1/2-furlong eighth race. A maiden winner at Emerald Downs in June, Belt faded to finish fifth in the one-mile Jim Beam Stakes at Emerald in his final start of 2013 in September and has not run since. He and Bowen will start from post 3. The likely pacesetter, Direct Cost, will start from the outside post. Follow My Tracks, an impressive maiden winner 11 months ago, has post 1.