Which jockey has ridden most winners for Peter Bowen in recent years?
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.’