Two weeks after a horrific spill, jockey Rocco Bowen recorded his biggest career Oaklawn victory to date in Thursday's seventh race aboard She's Divine ($47.40) for trainer Mike Puhich and North American Thoroughbred Racing Company, Inc. The allowance/optional claimer for older fillies and mares at 1 mile had a $105,000 purse.
“I'm telling you, I feel so thankful,” Bowen's agent/mentor, retired jockey Joe Steiner, said moments after the victory. “I'm just so thankful.”
It was the ninth victory at the meet for Bowen, 31, riding at Oaklawn for the first time this year. Puhich, who has deep ties to the Pacific Northwest, also put Bowen on his first Oaklawn winner (Background) Feb. 27.
Bowen recorded six more victories before he was injured seconds after the final race April 8 when his mount, Critic, fell and hit the rail, sending the jockey crashing to the ground.
Bowen said he never lost consciousness, but he lay motionless for several minutes before being placed on a backboard and transported by ambulance to CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs for further evaluation. No broken bones were found, Steiner said, and Bowen was released that night. Bowen fulfilled his engagements the following day, with the only visible sign of the accident a protective black brace on his sore left hand.
“He's a tough little son of a gun, I'll tell you,” Steiner said, adding he broke 39 bones in his riding career. “Well, you have to be, in this case.”
Steiner said Bowen will ride until the Oaklawn meeting ends May 1 before returning to Indiana Grand, which opened April 13. Bowen, a native of Barbados, became a riding star in the Pacific Northwest, specifically Emerald Downs in suburban Seattle, where he won three consecutive riding titles (2016, 2017 and 2018) before a training accident in September 2018, and subsequent debilitating arm injury, cost him approximately 1 ½ years in the saddle.
Bowen launched his comeback last June in the Midwest and won 39 races at Indiana Grand, including his 1,000th in North America, to finish eighth in the standings. Steiner said he and Bowen plan to return to Oaklawn in 2022.
“The whole intention is to come back here,” Steiner said. “Now that I've been here, I'm so fortunate and so thankful that they've let agents come on the backside (easing of COVID-19 restrictions). It gave me the chance to get to meet some of these people. I didn't know a lot of these people and next year I'm looking at more and more. It's a matter of just building up more people to maybe get an opportunity with. I love working with people.”
The post ‘Tough Little Son Of A Gun’: Rocco Bowen Returns To The Winner’s Circle After Scary Fall appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
