At the time of writing Sean Bowen currently leads the 2024/25 National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship, albeit narrowly, having ridden 38 winners from 216 rides at a strike rate of 18%. Of course, he narrowly missed out on his maiden title in 2023/24, eventually finishing just seven winners behind Harry Cobden, after a knee injury sustained in a fall at Aintree on Boxing Day caused him to miss the whole of January.

Born on September 5, 1997 in Little Newcastle in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, Bowen is the eldest son of trainer Peter Bowen, but it was for compatriot Bernard Llewellyn that he rode his first winner, Kozmina Bay, in a ‘Hands and Heels’ novices’ handicap hurdle at Uttoxeter on December 20, 2013. In 2014/15, with the backing of Paul Nicholls, he rode 51 winners, clinching the conditional jockeys’ title with victory on Lil Rockefeller, trained by Neil King, in the first race of the final meeting of the season, Bet365 Jumps Finale Day at Sandown Park, on April 25, 2015. By way of celebrating becoming, at the time, the youngest-ever Champion Conditional Jockey, at the age of 17, he also won the feature race of the day, the Bet365 Gold Cup, on Just A Par, trained by Nicholls, the same afternoon.

Two years later, on April 29, 2017, Bowen won the Bet365 Gold Cup again, on 40/1 outsider Henllan Harri, trained by his father, a victory that he later said had given him the ‘most pleasure’ in his career. In that same interview, he also said that his first Grade 1 winner, If The Cap Fits, in the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree on April 6, 2019, was ‘special’. He has since added three more to his career tally, namely Metier in the Tolworth Hurdle in 2021, Not So Sleepy in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle in 2024 and, most recently, Strong Leader in the Liverpool Hurdle, again, in 2024. Not bad for a jockey who is, ironically, allergic to horses.

Born in Winchester, Hampshire in April 2002, Saffron ‘Saffie’ Osborne is, of course, the daughter of National Hunt jockey-turned-trainer Jamie Osborne, who is based at Old Malthouse Stables in Upper Lambourn, near Hungerford, Berkshire. An accomplished eventer, Osborne spent four months riding work for Aidan O’Brien in Ireland and another four with Gai Waterhouse in Australia before taking her first rides in Britain, as apprentice to her father, in 2020.

Hot Scoop, who was victorious in a novice stakes race at Windsor on July 27, 2020, was the first of nine winners that Osborne rode in her in her inaugural season. However, it was at the same Berkshire course, on October 19, 2020, that she was lucky to escape serious injury when her mount, Zeyzoun, clipped heels after two furlongs of a mile handicap and unseated her. As it was, she suffered concussion, broken ribs, a punctured lung and a broken arm.

Nevertheless, in 2021, Osborne rode 40 winners, finishing runner-up in the apprentices’ championship, rather ironically behind Marco Ghiani, who had received a 10-day suspension for careless riding as a result of the aforementioned incident at Windsor. On October 16, 2022, she rode her first Group winner, Random Harvest, trained by Ed Walker, in the Premio Elena e Sergio Cumani at San Siro, Italy and less then three week later won November Handicap at Doncaster on Metier, trained by Harry Fry.

The following season, having ridden out her claim, Osborne enjoyed what she later described as ‘my best day in the saddle so far’ when winning the Chester Cup on Metier on May 12, 2023. Indeed, 2023 proved to be her most prolific so far, with 70 winners, including Random Harvest in the Group 3 Valiant Stakes at Ascot, and over £1.3 million in total prize money on British soil alone.

The late Joshua Thomas ‘Josh’ Gifford, who died from a massive heart at his yard in Findon, West Sussex on February 9, 2012, was a force majeure in National Hunt racing for 40 years. As a jockey, he rode a total of 693 winners and won the National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship four times, in 1962/63, 1963/64, 1966/67 (with a then record 122 winners) and 1967/68 and, as a trainer, he saddled a total of 1,587. However, for all his success elsewhere, to a wider audience Gifford will always be best remembered as the trainer of the fragile, but hugely talented, Aldaniti, whose ‘fairytale’ victory in the 1981 Grand National under cancer survivor Bob Champion became the subject of the 1984 film ‘Champions’.

Born on August 3, 1941 in Huntingdon, Gifford rode his first winner, Dorsol, trained by Syd Mercer in a maiden handicap at Birmingham on July 30, 1956. Indeed, he would ride 50 more on the Flat, including Trentham Boy in the Manchester November Handicap in 1956 and Curry in the Chester Cup in 1957, before weight problems forced him to turn his attention to the National Hunt code. In that sphere, he rode his first winner, Kingmaker, in a novices’ hurdle at Wincanton on December 17, 1959.

Gifford had the distinction of winning four of the first five winners of the Schweppes Gold Trophy (now the Betfair Hurdle), on Rosyth in 1963 and 1964, Le Vermontois in 1966 and Hill House in 1967, with all four winners trained by Ryan Price. He never won the Grand National, but his mount, Honey End must surely have beaten bona fide 100/1 outsider Foinavon in the 1967 renewal had he managed to avoid the now infamous melee at the twenty-third fence. He did, however, have the consolation of winning the Topham Trophy, over the National fences, twice, on Dagmar Gittell in 1962 and Walpole in 1966.

Born in Sherborne, Dorset on December 13, 1980, Joe Tizzard began his competitive racing career in the point-to-point field and rode his first winner under Rules, The Jogger, trained by his father, Colin, in a novices’ hunters’ chase at Wincanton on May 7, 1996. As a result, Paul Nicholls offered him a job as amateur jockey at his Manor Farm Stables in Ditcheat, Somerset and, on March 19, 1998, while still only 17, won the Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival on Earthmover, trained by Richard Barber.

By that stage, Tizzard had already had his first ride in the Grand National, in fact, the so-called ‘Monday National’ on April 7, 1997. However, his first experience of the celebrated steeplechase ended in tragedy when his mount, Straight Talk, broke leg after falling at the fourteenth fence and was humanely destroyed. Indeed, the National was never a ‘lucky’ race for Tizzard; in the whole of his 18-year riding career, his highest placing was fifth, beaten 39 lengths, on Montifault, also trained by Nicholls, in 2003.

Nevertheless, it was as a young jockey with the backing of the now 14-time Champion National Hunt Trainer that Tizzard enjoyed some of his best years. In 1998/99, he enjoyed the most successful season, numerically and fiscally, riding 91 winners, becoming champion conditional jockey and amassing just over £707,000 in total prize money. He won the Arkle Challenge Trophy at Cheltenham and the Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree on Flagship Uberalles and, having been appointed Nicholls’ stable jockey just shy of his nineteenth birthday, completed a Grade 1 hat-trick in the Tingle Creek Trophy at Sandown the following season.

Later in his career, Tizzard became stable jockey to his father at Venn Farm, in Milborne Port, Dorset. He became known for his association with Cue Card, on whom he won four Grade 1 races, including the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival in 2010 and the Ryanair Chase, back at Prestbury Park, in 2013. Tizzard retired from the saddle in March 2014 with 700 winners to his name.