Top Sydney jockey Hugh Bowman will be the new rider for Stradbroke Handicap winner Sincero when he resumes in the Autumn.
Bowman will be replacing the four year old’s regular rider Chris O’Brien when he resumes in the Group 2 $175,000 Canterbury Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill on March 24.
O’Brien had formed a great association with Sincero having won ten of his eleven wins, only missing the winning ride in the Group 1 $1m AAMI Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) when he was unable to make the weight and lightweight jockey Jason Taylor got a call up.
But O’Brien was able to secure a Group 1 victory on him when they took out the $350,000 George Main Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on September 17.
Bowman has only been booked for the Canterbury Stakes run and any future engagements will depend on his availability over the rest of the Carnival.
Sydney’s leading rider had his first feel of the four year old in an exhibition gallop in between races at Wyong on Sunday and said he liked the way he felt underneath him.
Bowman let Sincero work off from the 1000m and worked home strongly over the final 400m.
“That was the first time I had been on him and I was very impressed,” Bowman said.
“He doesn’t quicken when you ask him for a bit more, he just lengthens stride.”
Trainer Steve Farley said that Sincero has matured and strengthened during his break and has returned bigger and stronger.
Even tough Farley is not keen on a Doncaster Handicap start he was not completely ruled it out and is keeping his options open for the 1600m $2m Group 1.
“He’s in the Doncaster (nominations) and I’ll leave him there but it’s not my preferred option,” Farley said.
“For the race to become a reality he would have to be absolutely flying, it would have to fall away and he would have to have the right weight.
“The Doncaster hasn’t been working out as an ideal race for four-year-olds.
“They don’t have a good record in the race.”
But the Group 1 $400,000 George Ryder Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on Golden Slipper Day is high on the agenda and a return trip to Brisbane for the Group 1 $650,000 Carlton Mid Doomben 10,000 at Doomben on May 26 and another shot at the Stradbroke Handicap at Eagle Farm on June 9.
Farley is also aiming his sights towards Melbourne in the Spring and would like to have another crack at the Cox Plate with Sincero in preference to a Hong Kong trip in May.
“I don’t know how he would handle a trip like that and I do know the horse likes being at home.”
“The Cox Plate is the race we want to aim him at in the spring and there are plenty of good races, with big prize money here, in Australia without having to go to Hong Kong,” Farley said.
The four year old failed to fire in Melbourne last year with three unplaced runs including a ninth behind Pinker Pinker in the $3m Tatts Cox Plate (22040m) at Moonee Valley.
