Born in Brighton on May 12, 2000, Jason Watson rode his first winner, Many Dreams, trained by Gary Moore, in an apprentice handicap at Salisbury on May 18, 2017. His inaugural season yielded just one more winner from a total of 41 rides, but in 2018 he rode an astonishing 111 winners – 77 of which came in the ‘window’ between the Guineas Festival at Newmarket and British Champions Day at Ascot, on which the apprentices’ title is decided – and rode out his claim on Archimento, trained by William Knight, in a handicap at Kempton on October 8. Seasonal highlights included winning the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood on Gifted Master, trained by Hugo Palmer, and the Premio Lydia Tesio at Capannelle on God Given, trained by Luca Cumani.
In 2019, as stable jocket to now-retired Beckhampton trainer Roger Charlton, Watson rode 97 winners, including his first domestic Group 1 winner, Quadrilateral, in the Fillies’ Mile. His seasonal tally was all the more remarkable for the fact he was sidelined until the end of March after fracturing four vertebrae when his mount, Teresita Alvarez, stumbled badly and threw him to the ground at Kempton Park on January 4. However, after a less prolific season in 2020, in which he rode just 36 winners, Watson and Charlton eventually parted company in the summer of 2021. All told, Watson has nine Group race winners to his name, at home and abroad, the most recent of which was the Group 3 Goldene Peitsche at Baden-Baden on Al Shabab Storm, trained by Andrew Balding, on August 25, 2024.
