Category: Jockeys

Sean Bowen is the son of Pembrokeshire trainer Peter Bowen and the elder brother of James Bowen, who, in 2017/18, became the youngest champion conditional jockey in history. In 2014, Bowen won the Wilkinson Sword Edge Novice Riders’ Point-To-Point Championship, thereby attracting the attention of Paul Nicholls. He subsequently joined the multiple champion trainer as a conditional jockey and made an immediate impact. In his first full season, 2014/15, he rode 51 winners, despite being sidelined for six weeks with a shoulder injury, and won the conditional jockeys’ title by a margin of seven winners from his nearest rival, Nico de Boinville. Indeed, he had the distinction of being the youngest champion conditional in history until usurped by his younger brother three seasons.

As far as the Grand National is concerned, Sean Bowen first lined up in the celebrated steeplechase on April 11, 2015, bidding to become the youngest winning jockey since Bruce Hobbs, who was aged 17 years and three months when he won on Battleship in 1938. His mount on that occasion was the 9-year-old Mon Parrain, trained by Paul Nicholls, on whom he had previously won a handicap chase, in first-time blinkers, at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day. Sent off at 33/1 in the National, Mon Parrain raced in mid-division for most of the way, but was never really a factor and, while he completed the course, eventually trailed in eleventh of 19 finishers, a respectful 56 lengths behind the winner, Many Clouds.

Born on Guy Fawkes Day, 1998 and educated at Sexey’s School in Bruton, Somerset, Harry Cobden reportedly forewent his GCSE English examination in favour of riding his first winner, El Mindo, trained by Rachael Green, in the Thrusters Hunters’ at Leicester on March 6, 2015. Indeed, he made a flying start to his career, riding two winners, including one for Paul Nicholls, from just three starts towards the end of the 2014/15 National Hunt season.

In his first full season as conditional jockey at Nicholls’ Manor Farm Stables in Ditcheat, Somerset, in 2015/16, Cobden rode 30 winners from 138 rides at a strike rate of 22%. The following season, 2016/17, he increased his seasonal tally to 63 winners, riding out his claim in early February and winning the conditional jockeys’ title, 24 winners ahead of his nearest rival, former champion amateur David Noonan. Cobden rode his first Grade 1 winner, Irving, trained by Nicholls, in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle in November, 2016.

Cobden made a seamless transition to the professional ranks, riding 76 winners in 2017/18 and, in May, 2018, still only 19, succeeded Sam Twiston-Davies as Nicholls’ stable jockey. Fast forward to the 2021/22 season and Cobden reached the career landmark of 500 winners of British soil when riding Vision Des Flos, trained by Colin Tizzard, to victory at Uttoxeter on September 21, 2021. He currently lies eleventh in the 2021 jumps jockeys’ championship with 25 winners, but has achieved that total from just 79 rides, at a strike rate of 32%.

Nico de Boinville – whose full name is Nicolai W. Chastel de Boinville – may find his French heritage difficult to disguise, but he was, in fact, born in Baughurst, Hampshire on August 14, 1989.

Many of his ancestors, who were landed gentry from Lorraine, in northeastern France, were sent to the guillotine during the French Revolution. One of them, Jean Baptiste de Boinville – who served as aide-de-camp to the Marquis de Lafayette – escaped and sought political exile in London in 1789 after his estates were confiscated by the Revolutionary Government.

Privately educated at Bradfield College, Berkshire, Nico de Boinville renewed his French connection by spending his gap year working for Chantilly trainer Richard Gibson, en route to Newcastle-upon-Tyne University. However, the rigours of academic life were not for him and, after just six weeks, he dropped out of his politics course in favour of a riding career.

A handful of rides for his uncle, Patrick Chamings, and Andrew Balding yielded his first winner, Western Roots, in an amateur riders’ handicap at Newbury in August, 2008 and he was on his way. The following summer, de Boinville approached Lambourn trainer Nicky Henderson, who offered him work, but no guarantee of race rides.

The rest, as they say, is history. After a slow start, de Boinville gradually increased his winning tally season-by-season and, in 2014, turned professional. On Boxing Day that year, he rode his first Grade 1 winner, Coneygree, in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton and completed a notable double when winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup on the same horse the following March.