Sean Bowen hopes to cause upset with Booster Bob

Her two decent runs have come on good to soft so we’ll find out this weekend whether she handles the more testing conditions.

13:15 Sandown – Not So Sleepy

It’s always nice to pick up a ride in the big races so I’m delighted to have picked up a spare ride on Hughie Morrison’s horse Not So Sleepy in the rearranged Fighting Fifth.

He’s not getting any younger but he proved on the flat this summer that he still retains plenty of ability, so hopefully he can translate that back to hurdling this weekend.

I’ve never ridden him before but he did dead-heat in this race a couple of years ago and he has some really good form to his name at this top level, so he’s definitely entitled to take his chance.

Constitution Hill is a bit of a monster, and I’m sure he’ll be very difficult to beat, but there wouldn’t be much between the rest of us, so hopefully we can run a nice race and pick up some decent prize money.

14:25 Sandown – Arqoob

I haven’t ridden Arqoob before but he was a very talented horse on the flat and he seems to have translated plenty of that ability to hurdling since joining Lucy Wadham.

He made a nice start to the season when third at Plumpton back in October, then he took a decent step forward to win over this C&D last month.

A 5lb rise for that win seems reasonably fair and although he’s up in grade here, he gets to carry a nice light weight, which should help him in these conditions, so hopefully he goes there with a real nice chance.

Two for the tracker

Although it’s been frustrating to lose so many meetings to the weather this week, I did manage to ride a few winners at the back end of last week and over the weekend.

I was thrilled to get Act Of Authority’s head back in front at Bangor on Saturday and he’s definitely a nice horse worth keeping an eye on.

I’m sure he’ll go up in grade now after that win but he won with plenty of authority last weekend, so I’d hope he could hold his own when he tackles a higher grade in the not-too-distant future.

The one I’d be most hopeful can win next time though is Ukantango.

I finished second on him at Wetherby last week and while he wasn’t beaten far by Cerendipity , I think the ground was just slightly too soft for him to be honest.

Even though he didn’t enjoy the conditions, he ran a really admirable race and I’d be very hopeful he can return to winnings ways next time if we can find some slightly better ground for him.

Sean

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