Sean Bowen is now close to becoming the world's most accomplished jumping jockey. Photo: Debbie Burt
This may be one of the biggest ironies in sports. ; that the man leading the way in the show jumping championship is allergic to horses. But Shaun Bowen, aiming for his first title, may be looking to get them out of the way and is about 30 wins ahead of his nearest rival heading into the busy holiday period.
“I had bad eczema and asthma when I was little, and if Dad came in after grooming the horses, I would be itchy for days,” he says.
“When I race now, I haven’t been racing long enough for it to affect me, but if I clean one or with them all day, I’ll sneeze and my eyes will water.”
This should have been the point of the season when the pack began to approach Bowen after a fruitful summer and fall, but as this little hunt has experienced a wet winter just when the scent should have become stronger, the fox appears to be running away.
Another irony not lost on the Welsh jockey, who has already announced 120 winners this season, is that as a 3lb contender he was recalled to the British Racing School at Newmarket from Somerset , where he was assigned to Paul Nicholls' stable to undergo a fitness test again.
He is now close to, if not the fittest jumper jockey, and on a rare day off last week, when Ffos Las was dropped, he was in the gym at Oaksey House, The Injured Jockeys. Instead of taking a holiday, fund a rehab center in Lambourn, an hour's drive from his home near Bath.
“I think I failed half because of fitness and half because of attitude,” he recalls of that fateful day in Newmarket, although, like the Moore family, the Bowen name in sport is synonymous with a tough grafter. “I hated being there and had to drive all the way from Ditchit for something I didn’t think I needed to do.”
Until he was 12 years old, it didn’t even occur to Bowen to become a jockey. Photo: Debbie Burt
But his father, Pembrokeshire coach Peter Bowen, always instilled in him and his younger brother James, who won the Welsh Championship at 16, and older brother Mickey (along with Willie Mullins before returning home to help their father), that they would to succeed, you have to be better than everyone else.
“When we rode ponies, he would send us on an all-weather gallop; we did two gallops a day,” he says. “But I realized how good the conditions were at Oaksey House when I first broke my collarbone. Everything is designed for the jockeys and their fitness, and when I left Paul after four years I was riding similar winners, 50-55-60 a season, and I wanted to do better, so I started training in the gym again.
He also sleeps with his mouth taped so he can breathe through his nose after listening to podcasts on the subject. “I think it's healthier,” he says. “The air is filtered better. My snoring isn't as bad as it used to be, that's for sure. It's a lot of little things, and if you eat healthier and healthier, it will definitely help.”
Another deciding factor in his quest for his first title is that he has gone the full Sir Anthony McCoy route by surrounding himself with good people; A good agent in former weigh shop colleague Alain Cowley, his girlfriend Harriett Matthews is also essentially his personal assistant, and he has a driver.
“My only job is to concentrate on riding. Last week I went to Plumpton, Fakenham and then Ayr. Then Uttoxeter and Haydock. I don’t know how I did it without a driver,” he says.
Bowen has already named 120 winners this season. Photo: PA/Simon Marper
This is a wise approach from someone who, in academic terms, hasn't even taken GCSEs. “I hated classes, but I loved my friends,” he recalls. “But I always had problems because of boredom. Mum [a successful jockey herself] always said she didn't know how I got into such trouble when she picked me up from custody. “He’s such a quiet boy,” she said, “I can’t understand it.”
Since ninth grade, he has been homeschooled four times a week after traveling. Until he was 12 years old, it never even occurred to him to become a jockey. But after starting with a lazy pony, which he and James would time test at a gallop to see who could make it go faster, he began with pony racing.
The family bought an unbroken horse that never did not grow up, and the animal in question, Kudlik Verona, became the best racing pony in the country. Bowen moved up to the points and became champion conditional jockey in his first season with Nicholls.
“When James started, I was sure he would be much better,” he says. “He rode ponies longer, rode six races in a row on his 16th birthday, rode double or triple ponies and was champion novice with 25 winners between March and the end of the season. He was furious.
“He's had a bit of bad luck with injuries, but he's brilliant at getting horses in order. You will never see them fight him.”
Bowen's success also means success for Ollie Murphy, the young Midlands trainer he is attached to, and although the focus this season has been on quantity rather than quality, he is confident that good horses will come for him, as they have for Murphy. “We're both young, we'll build together,” he says.
As well as a determined title fight, which will include chasing winners on Boxing Day away from the Kempton spotlight, the ride book is full on the new Aintree Christmas event – he says he's more of a Grand National winner than a Gold Cup winner.
“Even when I didn't really like racing [as a kid], it was always Aintree for me,” he says aptly He. “Dad’s goal was to win the tournament and once we started skating, his ambition was to win it with one of his boys skating for him. He's won the Topham Chase five times and winning the McTotty [in 2022] was the best day of my racing life.”
For a jockey who is allergic to horses, winning in National competition because his father is another reason to scratch.
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