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- Chelsea Dream Turns Into Champion Jockey Reality For Sean Bowen
He’s the Pembrokeshire kid who wanted to be Didier Drogba and had an allergy to horse hair.
Now, Sean Bowen has reconciled he will never be Chelsea’s main striker, but he is on the point of fulfilling his second ambition - becoming the best jump jockey in the UK.
The 27-year-old will be crowned British champion jump jockey when the season concludes at Sandown on Saturday, the first Welsh rider to win the title since Dick Francis 71 years ago.
As a Welsh sporting triumph to end a long drought, it’s up there with a first World Cup appearance for 64 years for the Wales football team in 2022, or a first Grand Slam for the rugby team for 27 years when they lifted the 2005 Six Nations trophy.
For Bowen, the glory has also followed the bitter taste of near misses. He finished second in each of the last two seasons.
It will be a landmark moment not only for a rider who’s long threatened to take the top spot, but also for Welsh jump racing, which is enjoying a golden age of talent and triumph.
“It’s not just me,” Bowen says.
“Four of the top 10 jockeys are Welsh; myself, (Bowen’s younger brother) James, Jack Tudor and Ben Jones.
“That’s pretty good going for all of us to get to the top 10. I think we’re punching well above our weight.”
Bowen’s long road to the title has been anything but easy. Last season, he came agonisingly close, finishing just seven winners behind Harry Cobden despite missing six weeks after a fall in the Grade 1 Formby Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree on Boxing Day.
This season, there’s been no such misfortune — just relentless hard graft, high skill, raw courage, and a refusal to take his foot off the pedal.
Not only has he ridden more winners than any other jockey in Britain - 175 before he races at Perth today (Friday) - but he’s also taken more rides, clocking up nearly 900 mounts over the course of the campaign.
That’s more than enough miles to require two regular chauffeurs to get him up and down thousands of miles of motorways.
Among the many memorable moments this season was his astonishing effort on Booster Bob in the Greatwood Gold Cup at Newbury, where Bowen refused to give up on a horse seemingly beaten before turning for home.
Aware the horse had a reputation for being spooked when crowded in, Bowen drifted so far off the back, he was virtually in a different race.
He then conjured an astonishing late surge to take victory, epitomising the self-belief and rare genius that have made many pundits claim Bowen is the most talented jump jockey out there since the legendary AP McCoy retired 10 years ago.
A few weeks earlier, Bowen celebrated his 1,000th career winner on Kefir d’Oudairies at Fakenham — a milestone that underlines the consistency and longevity of his success.
READ MORE: Sean Bowen Has Grand National Glory on His Mind . . . With Support From Chepstow
Though his championship title has been long secured - his nearest rival, Harry Skelton is 34 wins behind - the fire has never dimmed for Bowen.
The son of trainer Peter Bowen produced five winners at Ffos Las last week before hopping across the Irish Sea on Easter Monday to ride Haiti Couleurs to Irish Grand National glory for Welsh trainer Rebecca Curtis.
It was a front-running masterclass - and arguably Bowen’s biggest race win to date - that not only stunned the locals at Fairyhouse, but also showcased a broader Welsh resurgence in the sport.
“We’re punching above our weight with trainers as well,” says Bowen.
“Obviously you had Becky Curtis sending a horse over to Ireland and winning the Irish Grand National – for such a little country we’re doing pretty well.”
Proudly flying the Welsh flag, Bowen has become the first Welsh champion jockey since rider-turned-crime writer Francis in 1954 - a 71-year gap finally bridged.
Like Francis, Bowen is a Pembrokeshire boy who grew up around horses and stable land.
The eldest of three brothers, he was embedded in the sport, even though his first love was football and his beloved Chelsea.
READ MORE: Sean Bowen Earns Chance To Add Grand National Glory To His Incredible Season
His father, Peter, is a veteran trainer, his mother Karen is a former champion point-to-point jockey, and his brothers Micky (trainer) and James (jockey) are also thriving in the industry. Remarkably, Sean and James dead-heated in a race at Cheltenham in December, another unique moment in a season packed with highlights.
“We had a very good generation in pony racing,” adds Sean.
“If you looked at pony racing before, a lot of people were just doing it for fun but we all wanted to be professional jockeys.
“We all wanted to be more stylish than one another and beat one another. We get on really well and it comes from competing together as kids as we’ve known each other for so long.”
Despite a childhood allergy to horses — a condition that would leave him sneezing, itching and with streaming eyes — Bowen has never let it deflect him.
Even now, close contact can trigger symptoms, but he’s learned to manage it over time.
He can afford the odd sneeze at Sandown on Saturday, though, because it's his rivals who have caught a cold.
