Hugh Bowman went home to his family on Saturday night as only the fourth jockey in Australian history to have won 100 times at Group 1 level.

But all his six-year-old daughter Paige wanted to know – and it wasn’t that – was if he had a trophy for her. As she jumped enthusiastically into his arms, Hugh assured her that indeed he did have one.

“It’s all very humbling to be honest, at my stage of life, whether you win or lose, to see that smile on their face makes it all special. One thing I have learned from racing is from the ups and downs and swings and roundabouts, it’s a great leveller,” Bowman said.

“Look, to be honest when I started, I never set out to ride Australia’s greatest horse or chase 100 Group 1s. I started riding because I wanted to be a jockey, I just loved competing, I still do, I love the animal, I love the people.

“Sure there is a certain monotony about horse racing at times, but when you take it all away, I ride because that’s what I love, I love winning more than ever, I don’t do it for fame or fortune, I do it for the love of riding regardless.”

Fame and fortune have certainly come his way, whether that’s through the 100 Group 1s (all over the globe they have come), whether it’s the Winx legacy, or building a new family home in South Coogee, you sense the same laconic demeanour in Bowman today as when he rode his first winner Slatts at the Wellington picnics as he had when we chatted as he drove to Randwick races.

There is no bragging about the achievements, you sense that drive remains unrequited, but it is not what drives him.

If there is one word I would attach to Hugh Bowman, it may simply be perspective. Listening to the Dunedoo drawl opining on lost friends like Damien Murphy and Pat Smullen, or the impact of causing the Andrew Adkins fall or what has befallen Tye Angland, Bowman delivers a quiet, always measured view.

At 41, only George Moore (126), Damien Oliver (118) and Jim Cassidy (102) have ridden more elite race winners than Bowman.

He’ll forever be immortalised by his association with Winx who has supplied 25 of those hundred, as he is with statues with her at Rosehill and Moonee Valley and on a painted pair of silos confronting you as you drive into his hometown of Dunedoo.

“It is amazing when you think about it, I suppose, ultimately though it’s just a number, I’ve won many big races that aren’t included and perhaps a handful that aren’t worthy but when you think there are only three others (jockeys), well that’s something.”

“And I suppose I was a bit of a late starter in the Group 1 stakes, I was almost 24 when I won my first (Defier, Doomben Cup, 2004), because weight restricted my chances in big handicaps and I really had to earn my stripes in weight-for-age races before building some momentum.”

But Bowman is not one for memorabilia, superstition or nodding overtly to historical achievements like the one he has just written (or more so ridden!).

“I’ve got a lot of Winx stuff but it’s all in storage, I’ve got a few saddles that I love and have kept, but I’m not really into that sort of stuff,” Bowman said.

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What drives Bowman is the track, and when off that, the family, his Irish born wife Christine, and eldest daughter Bambi, 8, and the enthusiastic Paige.

“I miss them not being able to come to the track, actually I really miss the crowds not being able to come to the track, especially the big days,” Bowman says.

And he then adds that he thinks the elite horses he rides at these crowdless spring carnival races miss them to.

“I really do, these are high achieving animals, I’m sure they know they are being watched and they absorb the energy as well, I sense they feel it. You could say a more fragile horse might be mentally better off without them, but I really think the horses love the buzz as much as we do.

“Look behind the gates, in the gates and in the race it’s no different for us as jockeys, our concentration levels are intense and the crowd couldn’t be further from the mind, but it’s pre-race thriving off the excitement of the owners, or the atmosphere after the race with the fans, it’s palpable, it really is, when it’s there, it’s fantastic, but you do miss it when it not.”

So at home is Christine and the girls eagerly watching, though Christine did forget to record the races for Hugh on Saturday, who had left them behind telling them Montefilia was his best for the day. Who said jockeys were the worst judges?

When he did get home after a momentous day, well it was nothing more than an ice bath for recovery, a few beers, a small meal, and Paige eagerly inspecting the trophy for the Metrop.

“Paige is the more bubbly one, she’s got a more outgoing personality (perhaps throws to mum), Bambi, is more introverted, absorbing what’s going on (perhaps more like dad),” he said. Those (perhaps) are my distance observations.

“Both have ridden horses, they are certainly interested, but they haven’t been exposed to them like I was, at their age I was already well and truly riding on my own but if they want to go down that path we will support them but like any parents, Christine and I will be there for them, no matter what they choose,” he said.

Sunday was a rare get away with a socially distanced trip to Coogee Beach.

The beach will be much closer when Bowman completes a two-year build on a new family home in the next month.

“It’s been a big job but will give me a lot more stability. I will have my own steam room and training facilities. Obviously due to Covid we have been restricted a lot in what we can do so I’ve cut back on the training but have been riding a lot more,” he said.

“Now we have 10 races on a Saturday, it’s more a matter of managing the recovery well. The body feels great, I’m comfortably riding 56kg and if I can continue to do that without cutting corners then that’s ideal.

“The days of hunger strikes are behind me, I’ve never been a big eater, now it’s more about managing fluid intake and if I have to ride a little heavier, that’s what it will be, but right now I couldn’t be happier with where I am at.”

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The Winx journey, not surprisingly for Bowman and his family, and of course for all those involved who not only managed her career and longevity as much as shared it with the world, gave him some life lessons, even if he can’t nail down exactly what they are. Perhaps more innate.

“It was a whirlwind, it turned our lives upside down and changed them privately and publicly, I learned a lot but I was always mindful and cautious not to let it go past and enjoy it.”

“But now I feel as though I am in a rebuilding faze and it’s something I am really enjoying.”

It hasn’t always been “she’s apples” for Bowman, a thing that came from his cousin and some Aussie slang that is now his famous post-race signature.

He’s had falls, survived without serious injuries, but remains forever mindful of the risks of his occupation.

“I still think causing the fall to Andy Adkins really knocked me about the most, it was one of the most confronting things in my career,” Bowman said.

Adkins was left with a broken leg in four places, a punctured lung and broken collarbone after a fall caused by Bowman that sent him to a six-week suspension, Adkins to over 213 days on the sidelines.

“It took me a while to accept it, to let it sink in, then I came back and got criticised for going too fast on Farnan (The Run To Rose and a 20 day suspension), it was just post the Winx era and it was all bottled up inside me at once, I had to learn from that.”

As he did when an Irish jockey he had mentored – Damien Murphy – was killed in a race fall at Wellington and it was Bowman and Racing NSW boss Peter V’landys who were there when the decision was made to turn off his life support.

“That was difficult, I had met him in Ireland and encouraged him to come to Australia for better opportunities, he had a great work ethic and wanted to make it here and I felt responsible for that, it was a tough time.”

As it was when he lost a good friend in legendary Irish jockey Pat Smullen to cancer or when Tye Angland had his accident in Hong Kong that left him a quadriplegic.

And this is where perspective comes in again.

“I wouldn’t say Tye and I were joined at the hip or anything, but we came from a similar (country) background, I rode with him a long time, it’s hard to explain the feeling I had, it’s just the stage of life you have been through, that feeling of invincibility, and you see these things happen and it makes life all so very real.”

“It just brings home the reality of the dangers of what we do and then you think of your kids and coming home at night and the consequences are more apparent every day, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love riding.”

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So, if there is one more trophy Bowman wants to bring home to Paige (and the others of course), it’s the Melbourne Cup, a race he has placed in, but fears may elude him.

“Look the reality is the odds are against me, history says only one horse every 10 years in my weight range might win the race and then you need to get on it, which is another challenge.

“But there is one thing about the Cup that I have learned is that there is so much luck involved, so if you get on the right horse on the right day, it just might happen,” Bowman said.

But it has happened for Bowman in a Japan Cup when he got on Cheval Grand to win one of the world’s great races.

Winx aside, he rates the performance of Reliable Man in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, his single most impressive win in all these 100 Group 1’s, and Lion Tamer in the Victoria Derby as his most satisfying and surprising one.

Now for Bowman 101 – has a ring of perspective to it doesn’t it, as well as another trophy for Paige.