Leading jockey Bowen remains hungry despite success

Rocco Bowen is home and cooled out in the race for leading jockey at Emerald Downs. Going into the weekend, the 29-year-old native of Barbados has 81 wins, and his closest pursuer is Kevin Orozco, with 59.

Bowen, who also dominated the standings last year, is confident he hasn’t reached his full potential as a rider.

“Mike Smith said a jockey doesn’t really become good until he’s 30,” said Bowen. “I am not too thrilled about turning 30, but I want to see how true that statement is.”

Bowen learned to ride at a jockey school sponsored by the Barbados Turf Club.

“There were 12 of us in the school, and only three made it as jockeys,” said Bowen. “My really good friend Rico Walcott has been dominating them at Northlands Park, and Chris Husbands is riding at Woodbine.”

A lot of what makes Bowen a great rider is what he learned after he graduated from the school when he was under contract to the late Bill Marshall for three years. Marshall was one of the top trainers in Barbados.

“He was a genius when it came to horses,” said Bowen. “He came from England and was a real island trainer. One of the things he taught me was that hard work pays off.”

Bowen’s unbridled enthusiasm and his love for horses are other reasons for his success. He enjoyed grooming horses when he worked for Marshall. Instead of doing public-relations work in the barn area, he would rather be hanging out with horses, particularly Sippin Fire, the top 3-year-old at Emerald, trained by Steve Bullock.

“Sippin Fire is such a cool horse,” said Bowen. “He’ll let you do anything with him. I’ll lay down with him in his stall, and he doesn’t care if I jump on his back bareback. He’s pretty special.”

Bowen left Barbados to ride at Hastings in 2007, and he won 23 races there. He was struggling there the next year and went to Assiniboia Downs, where he had a modicum of success prior to moving to the Pacific Northwest in 2012.

His most memorable wins came aboard full brothers Absolutely Cool and Makors Finale.

“Makors Finale really helped get me going at Emerald,” he said. “I picked him up in the [2012] Emerald Derby when Gallyn Mitchell was injured. Nobody gave Absolutely Cool a chance when he won the Phoenix Gold Cup in back-to-back years.”

Makors Finale was trained by Tom Wenzel, whom Bowen credits for a lot of his success at Emerald. One of the lessons Bowen learned from Wenzel is to study the Daily Racing Form.

“Tom has been my biggest supporter here,” he said. “Because of him, I watch replays and go over past performances in detail. I try to know everything about a horse before I ride them in a race.”

Bowen is content at Emerald, but he is ambitious and someday hopes to make an impact on a bigger circuit.

“For me, it is all about looking forward,” he said. “If an opportunity arose where I could ride decent horses at a bigger track, I would have to take it.”

Bowen has mounts in all 10 races on Sunday’s card, which begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.