What do you do after another stellar season, 13 Group 1’s here, a trio in Hong Kong, and the sport changing relationship with Winx? You’d think Hugh Bowman would be looking for a family holiday in the sun.
Wrong. Try this – Bowman is going to walk the famous Kokoda Track. And he’s taking fellow jockeys Corey Brown, Stephen Baster and Kathy O’Hara along for the arduous 96km rugged sweaty journey in Papua New Guinea.
And they will be joined by high profile Myer Ambassador, ex Danni Minogue squeeze and Instagram sensation (120,000 followers) Kris Smith – a huge racing fan himself.
They set off in early August aiming to do what for most can be up to a 13-day trek in a five day dash – if you can call it that, but for Bowman it has many special reasons.
And this is not just celebrity or sportsmen paying a nod to doing good for charity with a photo opportunity. This is Bowman and his mates, committing to something hugely challenging, yet engaging and inspirational.
Yes it is to raise funds for the National Jockeys Trust as well as the Mark Hughes Foundation, seeking a cure for brain cancer, but Bowman has family history to honour on this big adventure.
“Look I don’t really know what to expect and although my fitness levels are pretty high I know it won’t be any walk in the park,” Bowman said.
Not many who have done Kokoda would call it a park. And none respect that more than Hughie with his great uncle James Hugh Bowman and family in his head and his heart. That J H Bowman and his cousin both lost their lives in WW11
“There was my grandfather (Bruce), my great uncle and his cousin. They were working on a farm and two of them had to go (to the war) so they drew straws and my grandfather stayed home,” Bowman said
“I am named after my great uncle, unfortunately he was killed in Malaya in the war alongside his cousin. This is very special to me. I have always wanted to do something like this and when the chance came up I jumped at it,” Bowman said.
There remains a photo on the Bowman family farm “Merotherie” at Dunedoo of great uncle J H Bowman riding a placing in a Corinthian race for amateur riders at Randwick just before heading off to the war.
The year Bowman’s great uncle and his cousin were killed in the war was the year that birthed the Kokoda legacy.
Sometimes called the Trail, as well as the Track, it was the location of the bloody battle in the Owen Stanley Range between the well prepared Japanese and the outnumbered Allied forces.
Kokoda was arguably Australia’s most significant campaign of the Second World War.
More Australians died in the seven months of fighting in Papua, and the Japanese came closer to Australia, than in any other campaign.
Approximately 625 Australians were killed along the Kokoda Trail and over 1,600 were wounded. Casualties due to sickness exceeded 4,000.”
Bowman will do his research on the war and the task before he heads of on July 31 on his inspirational fund raising mission for the two charities giving Bowman a chance to marry his family reverence to the modern good.
The tragic death of Donna Philpot in a trackwork fall at Bendigo again highlights the work of the National Jockey’s Trust, passionately supported by all riders of course.
Since 2000 there have been 17 jockeys who have lost their lives in Australian horse racing.
For every rider lost, dozens more jockeys suffer life changing, career ending injuries and illnesses.
Since 2004, Trustees of the National Jockeys Trust have approved 312 applications for assistance.
The amount of assistance provided to jockeys (past and present) in necessitous circumstances now exceeds $3 million.
The Mark Hughes Foundation is a not for profit organisation determined to find a cure for Brain Cancer. And there are some harsh statistics out there.
More than 1,600 Australians are diagnosed with brain cancer each year and 1,200 die from it.
Brain cancer kills more children than any other disease
Brain cancer kills more people under 40 than any other cancer
Only two out of 10 people survive five years
Brain cancer receives less than 5 per cent of government funding for cancer
“I am glad I am doing this with people I know. I am sure there will great camaraderie out there to get the job done and I urge everyone to get behind us to support these charities,” Bowman said.
Bowman has bought the special walking shoes and is in the process of breaking them in. His long distance form is limited to one 4Tracks4Kids charity event and a 70km 24 hour walk “but that was a while ago,” he said.
“I used to do plenty of hiking when I was at school, but I am hoping my race fitness will help us along, from July 1 I will really start to prepare with a diet and training program,” Bowman said.
And that means riding until the end of the season and that too for a reason.
He wants to chase down Brenton Avdulla for another rider’s premiership. He rode a double at Warwick Farm on Wednesday and sits eight-and-a-half behind him. (They count dead heats as a half in NSW re premiership?).
“That will give me something to focus on. I am going to keep riding until the end of the season, nothing keeps me fitter than that, doing the gym work and knowing Kokoda won’t be easy will give me another focus,” Bowman said.
The easiest way to support Bowman and his Kokoda team is at the website www.walking2help.com.au
O’Hara is asking girls to “chip in a bit of money to buy Kris Smith a t-shirt that fits him.”
Baster is looking forward to walking alongside his ‘twin brother from another mother” – Smith.
Or as Bowman pointed out, trekking Kokoda will be no place for posers. It never was.