Sydney's leading jockey Hugh Bowman failed to ride a winner at Randwick but had a victory in the stewards' room.Stewards charged him with failing to ride his mount Speeding To Win to the line in the opening race of the day, the Merimbula Bay Handicap (1000m), in which the debutant finished a short neck second to Winter King.However, after a vigorous defence by Bowman stewards found they were unable to sustain the charge.Bowman put away the whip about 20 metres from home on the $4.40 chance while

Sydney's leading jockey Hugh Bowman failed to ride a winner at Randwick but had a victory in the stewards' room.

Stewards charged him with failing to ride his mount Speeding To Win to the line in the opening race of the day, the Merimbula Bay Handicap (1000m), in which the debutant finished a short neck second to Winter King.

However, after a vigorous defence by Bowman stewards found they were unable to sustain the charge.

Bowman put away the whip about 20 metres from home on the $4.40 chance while Nash Rawiller came flashing home on the David Payne-trained $3 favourite Winter King.

Bowman maintained the John O'Shea-trained Speeding To Win shied at something and said he does not become unbalanced without a reason.

"He must have shifted a little bit because I lost my balance ... I don't lose my balance," Bowman said.

"You've seen me ride 1,000 times and getting unbalanced is not something that I do.

"You're trying to say I dropped my hands because I thought I had the race won.

"Of course I knew where he (Rawiller) was, I was never more than a neck in front of him."

The stewards eventually agreed with Bowman.

"We're satisfied you do lose balance as a result of your horse commencing to shift," chief steward Ray Murrihy said.

The inquiry opened shortly after the running of the race and things initially did not look promising for Bowman.

Murrihy opened his line of questioning to Bowman by asking: "Did you ride your mount to the line?"

"He shied at the post or something and has gone underneath me," Bowman replied.

"Haven't you knocked up a couple of bounds short," Murrihy said.

The experienced Bowman then told Murrihy he was aware of Winter King charging down the outside.

"I certainly wasn't going to stop riding because I was aware I was just in front," Bowman said.

"You can see on the side-on (replay) he's on one rein and I corrected him, his momentum stops and I correct him."

Murrihy said he did not see any noticeable shift from Speeding To Win.

"He's dead-set in the middle of the track, what's he shying at there?" Murrihy asked.

"We're obliged as jockeys to keep our mounts straight and that's what I've done," Bowman said.

Bowman will ride at Canterbury on Wednesday but will miss the final meeting of the metropolitan season at Warwick Farm on Friday to head to Darwin for the Cup carnival.

He arrives in the Top End in time for the Palmerston Sprint on August 1 before riding in the Cup two days later.

Bowman leads Corey Brown by 15 wins in the Sydney jockeys' premiership.