HorseRacingQA.com

At the time of writing, Pembrokeshire trainer Peter Bowen lies ninth in the 2021/22 National Hunt Trainers’ Championship, with 25 winners and nearly £223,000 in prize money. Unremarkably, granted that they have ridden 131 of the 138 runners Bowen has sent out so far in 2021/22, his sons Sean, 24, and James, 20, have collectively ridden all bar one of those winners.

It’s been a similar story over the last five seasons or so, although it’s worth remembering that it wasn’t until 2017/18 that James Bowen wrested the mantle of youngest champion jockey in history from his brother – who had held that distinction since 2014/15 – and had ridden just twice for his father, without success, before that season.

In any event, in the last five seasons, Sean Bowen has ridden 111 winners from 666 rides for his father, at a strike rate of 17%, while his younger brother has ridden 61 winners from 484 rides, at a strike rate of 13%. In the same period, just one other jockey, amateur Peter Bryant, has ridden more than one winner for the yard. The Bowen brothers have clearly come a long way since winning both finals of the Charles Owen pony racing series at York Racecourse on the same day in September, 2013, at the ages of 16 and 12, respectively. Peter Bowen later recalled, ‘That was pretty special.’

Born in Newtownhamilton, County Armagh, but based in Cleveland in the North of England, Brian Hughes won the Jump Jockeys’ Championship for the first time in 2019/20 with 141 winners – 19 ahead of reigning champion Richard Johnson – in a season curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic. Although, in his own words, Hughes had ridden ‘quite a bit’ for Donald McCain in preceding seasons, in May, 2018, he officially became first choice jockey at Bankhouse Stables in Cholmondeley, Cheshire.

Having ridden 24 winners from 93 rides for the yard in 2017/18, Hughes increased his seasonal tally, albeit at a reduced strike rate, to 41 winners from 311 rides in 2018/19. In his title winning season, he did so again, with 43 winners from 222 rides and in 2020/21, when he finished runner-up to Harry Skelton in the Jump Jockeys’ Championship, nonetheless enjoyed his most successful season so far, with 47 winners from 246 rides.

That said, at the time of writing, Brian Hughes leads the 2021/22 Jump Jockeys’ Championship with 73 winners – 29 ahead of nearest rival, Sean Bowen – and is long odds-on to win the jockeys’ title for a second time. In the current season, so far, he has ridden 31 winners from 111 rides for Donald McCain, at a strike rate of 28%; barring accidents, a new seasonal best for the yard looks a formality.

Cobden rode his first Grade 1 winner for Paul Nicholls, Irving in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle, in November, 2016, while still a conditional jockey. In fact, he did not ride out his claim until the following February, but went on to win the conditional jockeys’ title in 2016/17. In 2017/18, Cobden rode 76 winners, including 24 for Nicholls; that season he rode two more Grade 1 winners for the now 12-time champion trainer, namely Politologue, in the Betfair Tingle Creek Chase at Ascot in December, 2017, and Diego Du Charmil, in the Doom Bar Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree in April, 2018.

Shortly afterwards, Nicholls announced Cobden as his new stable jockey for the forthcoming 2018/19 National Hunt season, replacing Sam Twiston-Davies. In his inaugural season as first-choice jockey at Manor Farm Stables, Cobden rode 109 winners, 84 of which were trained by Nicholls, including four more at Grade 1 level. Cobden missed out on a Grade 1 winner in the curtailed 2019/20 season, but was back in business in 2020/21, winning the MansionBet Challow Novices’ Hurdle at Newbury on Bravesmangame, and the Doom Bar Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle and Betway Bowl Chase, on the same day, on Monmiral and Clan Des Obeaux, respectively. All three winners were trained by Paul Nicholls, taking Cobden’s career tally for the yard to ten Grade 1 winners.