James Bowen

Fresh from a double at the Cheltenham Festival, the jump jockey tells Martha Terry about his racing childhood, the invincibility of youth and keeping a level head

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JAMES BOWEN had waited years for a Cheltenham Festival winner. This time round, he left with two. For those who knew his roots, it felt almost inevitable. Childhoods don’t come much more idyllic than the Bowen boys’. The three brothers spent much of their schooldays playing with ponies in the Pembrokeshire countryside: racing ponies, racing each other, racing their cousins, racing themselves.

When James was 13, he left school – ostensibly to be home-schooled while pursuing his racing commitments. In reality, the yard, not the classroom, was the real crucible for his education.

“I didn’t spend any time on schoolwork,” says James as we chat while he drives from a morning gallop at Newbury to racing at Kempton. “If I couldn’t be a jockey, there wasn’t much chance of another career to fall back on.”

He didn’t need one. Aged 16, James was crowned the youngest-ever winner of the Welsh National, followed by becoming champion conditional jockey with 58 winners.

Nine years later, last month at Cheltenham, he franked that prodigious talent, bagging not just his first Festival trophy but a double. On day one, he steered Holloway Queen to win the National Hunt Challenge Cup before Jingko Blue galloped to victory in the BetMGM Cup Handicap Hurdle the following day.

“A win there is incredible, and I wasn’t expecting much – especially from Holloway Queen as I thought she’d hate the ground,” James says. “Nicky Henderson actually asked me before the race if I’d run her. I said, ‘It’s up to you,’ but I’m glad she did run.

“The atmosphere is amazing, but you don’t hear as much when you’re on the horse. It’s when you watch it back that you realise just what a big deal winning there is.

“I’ve watched it back multiple times,” he grins. “I’m still watching it back now.”