AUBURN, Washington – Barbadian Rocco Bowen made a stunning return to Emerald Downs to win the Pacific North-West racetrack’s most prestigious race, when he produced a late bid with favourite Background to capture the Grade III US$100 000 Longacres Mile Handicap on Sunday.Going a mile for the three-year-olds and upward, the 32-year-old Bowen raced the four-year-old chestnut gelding off the pace before making a run in the stretch to get up in the final yards to beat 12-1 Windribbon by a head.The victory was the first graded-stakes win for the Mike Puhich-trained gelding and for Bowen, in the 86th edition of the showpiece, first run in 1935.
