Top jump jockey Sean Bowen had a lucky escape after taking a spectacular fall at Fontwell on Wednesday.
Bowen finished runner-up in last season’s jump jockeys championship on 157 winners, losing out to Harry Cobden having led for much of the campaign.
He has ridden three winners since the new campaign started and was aboard 18-1 chance Princess Unique, trained by his father Peter and brother Michael, when she lined up in a novices’ handicap hurdle at the Sussex track.
The pair got no further than the first flight as Princess Unique wandered around approaching the obstacle, appeared set to refuse, then took off.
Bowen flew off the side of the mare, landing on his side and rolled into the path of the following Hey Day Baby.
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As Hey Day Baby cleared the flight her front legs came down either side of the stricken Bowen’s head.
Sky Sports Racing presenter Mick FitzGerald said Bowen was “literally millimetres away from crushing his skull.
Incredibly Bowen was shown rising to his fett and walking away. He gave up his mounts at Huntingdon on Thursday but is due back at Market Rasen on Friday.
Sean Bowen flies off the side of Princess Unique as she approaches the flight (Racing TV)“I am all good,” said Bowen on Thursday. “I am a little bit sore but I am hoping I will be all right for tomorrow.
“The horse has never been in that situation before and was spooking and she dropped me. I was lucky I didn’t get a kick to the head. I got a kick to the shoulder instead. Thankfully it wasn’t my head.”
He added: “It’s horse racing and we all get falls. Sometimes they can be a lot worse than they are. I was lucky it wasn’t my head and it was just my shoulder, We live to fight another day.”
Sean Bowen: brushed off his near-miss (Getty Images)Punters on X admitted they momentarily worried for Bowen after watching back the footage.
“Incredibly lucky. My god that would have been shocking if the off-fore connected with his face,” one said.
Another commented: “Jesus didn’t watch this race but that’s incredible. I’d be buying a lottery ticket if I was Sean Bowen.”
Underlining Bowen’s near-miss, another said: “Inches away from being killed, how close was that hoof from crunching through his head.”
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