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.
