Sean Bowen 'riding second to no one' says Olly Murphy after jockey and trainer enjoy most successful month of their careers

Olly Murphy is hoping to push Sean Bowen to a first title this season, with the trainer-jockey combination on top form after the most successful month in their careers.

Murphy trained 24 winners in November – four more than his previous best month in November 2021 – and Bowen rode 30 winners – five more than his 25 winners in July last year.

Bowen has a 13-winner lead over Harry Skelton in the championship before Tuesday’s racing and the trainer believes his stable jockey is riding better than ever on the back of his second-place finish to Harry Cobden last season.

Murphy said: “Sean is riding second to no one at the moment. He’s riding with a lot of confidence and I find that rubs off on me in the way I can train the horses.

“I don’t think there’s another jockey bar Harry Skelton who has ridden more winners for their respective stable this season and hopefully that’s not going to slow up. We’ll be doing our best to get Sean over the line, although it will be another tough task with Harry, and Dan Skelton, flying along and Harry Cobden starting to motor. It will be very exciting.

“The injury was costly for Sean last season but he has a very mature head on young shoulders and is very level on the good and bad days, which is really important for a jockey.

“I don’t tie him down to any instructions and let him get on with it. I believe we work very well together. It’s a young and fruitful partnership that will hopefully be around for a long time.”

Murphy achieved a first top-ten finish when seventh in the trainers’ championship last season and is third in the standings this campaign. Only 26 of his 90 runners finished out of the first four last month and he has saddled 18 more winners from May to November this season compared to last.

He said: “Things have been going great and the horses have been in really good form. The quality and quantity of the string looks good and December is a big month, so we have lots of horses to run and hopefully the form continues.

“The horses have been healthy and well and running in the right races. We ran lots in November and had a good time of it but they’ve been very consistent in recent months.

“In this game you can be riding on a cloud one minute and the next minute you can be down in the dumps, so you have to enjoy the good runs when they come.”

Strong Leader: won the Long Distance Hurdle on his return at Newbury last weekCredit: Edward Whitaker

Last season’s Liverpool Hurdle winner Strong Leader made a winning return in the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury last week and Murphy hopes to land another Grade 2 prize with Resplendent Grey in the Esher Novices’ Chase at Sandown on Friday.

Murphy said: “He’s in very good form. It turned into a bit of a sprint at Cheltenham last time and it didn’t play to his strengths. Sandown should suit him and on ratings it looks like he should go very well.”

Castle Ivers, a well-regarded maiden hurdle winner at Warwick last month, could run in a novice hurdle at Cheltenham on Friday week.

Read more . . .

'Sometimes you’ve got to have a go' - Murphy ponders Stayers' bid for Strong Leader following Long Distance success 

Sean Bowen: Olly Murphy can help fire me to first jockeys' title over big rivals Cobden and Skelton 

The unbeaten Champion Hurdle dark horse who Willie Mullins says is 'something special' 

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