James Bowen is, of course, the son of Pembrokeshire trainer Peter Bowen and the younger brother of fellow jockey Sean Bowen. A graduate from pony and point-to-point racing, Bowen turned professional at the age of 16 and rode his first winner as a professional, Curious Carlos, trained by his father, in a handicap hurdle at Cartmel on May 27, 2017. He subsequently became conditional jockey to Upper Lambourn trainer Nicky Henderson and in 2017/18 rode 58 winners on his way to succeeding brother Sean as the youngest Champion Conditional Jockey in history. On January 6, 2018, Bowen made headlines when winning the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow on the 13-year-old Raz De Maree, trained by Gavin Cromwell, thereby becoming the youngest jockey ever to win that race, too.
Bowen enjoyed is most successful season so far in 2021/22, when he rode 74 winners from 338 rides, at a strike rate of 19%, and amassed £960,334 in prize money. Fast forward to 2024/25 and he has, at the time of writing, ridden 65 winners from 357 rides to lie sixth in the senior jockeys’ championship. All told, Bowen has 27 Graded and Listed winners to his name, his first Grade 1 win coming on Jango Baie, trained by Henderson, in the Formby Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree on Boxing Day 2023. He has ridden 11 winners at Cheltenham, including Call Me Lord in the International Hurdle in 2019 and Sir Gino in the Finesse Hurdle in 2024, but none so far at the Cheltenham Festival.
