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- Sean Bowen: The Champion Jockey Who Deserves Wales’ Sporting Spotlight
Since the Welsh version of the award was first handed out way back in 1954, not a single jockey — and not a single figure from the sport of horse racing — has ever won it.
That omission looks increasingly absurd in a year when Pembrokeshire’s Bowen has ridden his way to the top of British sport.
At 28 years of age, Bowen has become the dominant force in jump racing.
Week after week, in all weathers, from Aintree to Ayr, from Ffos Las to Fakenham, he’s the rider everyone’s chasing — the relentless, unflappable front-runner in the race to become Britain’s Champion Jump Jockey.
Bowen won the title last season - in April - for the first time and became only the third Welsh rider to be crowned Champion Jockey and first since Dick Francis in 1954.
A careless glance at this season’s table would have you believe it’s a tight contest to defend his crown as there are only 12 wins separating five places.
READ MORE: Sean Bowen . . . The Story Of The Pembrokeshire Boy Who Became A Welsh Racing Giant
That is until you notice that the intense battle taking place is between second-place James Bowen - Sean’s brother - on 54 winners, down to Brian Hughes in sixth, who has ridden 42 winners.
The man at the top - defending champion Sean Bowen - has an incredible 134 winners and we are not even into the meat of the winter jumps season.
In race terms, he’s at least 20 lengths clear of the rest of the field.
But it’s not just that Bowen is the best of the current crop of jockeys from far and wide who ride in UK racing.
Many shrewd judges reckon that when it comes to sheer talent and ability to win on a horse, he is the best the sport has seen since the legendary AP McCoy, who retired a decade ago.
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Seven-time former champion jockey Peter Scudamore went even further recently and claimed Bowen was the most gifted jockey he had ever witnessed.
Comparisons with McCoy were being made at Cheltenham at the weekend, when Bowen won spectacularly on the novice chaser, Wade Out.
Splattered in mud and buffeted by Storm Claudia, on a horse that looked fairly hopeless, he managed to come from nowhere to win through a combination of skill, know-how and relentless determination.
In a country that still idolises its rugby players and football heroes, salutes its cyclists and boasts many great boxers, athletes, golfers and snooker stars, Bowen’s achievements have slipped under the radar.
But they shouldn’t. His success this year isn’t just remarkable within racing — it’s one of the great Welsh sporting stories of the year.
Racing is unforgiving. The hours are brutal, the travel endless, the physical risks immense.
Jockeys face the kind of daily punishment few other athletes experience — fasting to maintain impossibly low weights, waking before dawn to ride out in freezing conditions, then hurtling over fences at 35mph on half-ton animals.
It’s a world of courage, dedication and monastic self-discipline.
Yet in the seven decades of the BBC Wales award, racing has been completely ignored.
Not for lack of talent — Wales has produced champions and legends — but because the sport has too often been sidelined in the national sporting conversation, dismissed as a niche activity, an also-ran.
Sean Bowen’s extraordinary 2025 offers the perfect chance to change that.
Bowen’s life journey has the kind of back story awards panels usually dream of.
Raised in Little Newcastle, Pembrokeshire, he was practically born into the sport. His father, Peter Bowen, was one of Britain’s most respected trainers, his mother Karen was a point-to-point rider and his brother, James, is a leading jockey in his own right.
It was all there, perhaps, except for the fact that Sean was allergic to horse hair - still is - and even now close proximity for too long can set off a sneezing fit.
But he managed to overcome that rather obvious hurdle to go from pony races to the pinnacle of the professional sport.
He first made headlines as a teenager, sweeping to the Conditional Jockeys’ title at just 17 — the youngest ever to do so.
Since then, he has built a reputation as one of the sharpest tacticians and strongest finishers in National Hunt racing. Trainers trust his judgement. Fellow riders respect his calmness under pressure.
Punters and fans know that when Bowen is booked, the horse has a chance.
This year has been the culmination of years of graft.
He’s delivered big winners for Paul Nicholls, Olly Murphy and his father’s yard, showing versatility across every type of horse and racecourse.
Even after injury setbacks, his determination to fight back has been a hallmark of his success.
But what makes Bowen such a compelling candidate for BBC Wales Sports Personality isn’t just the volume of winners, but the manner of them — the authority, the composure, the complete absence of ego.
He doesn’t chase headlines; he just turns up, delivers, and goes again.
He is, in many ways, the perfect reflection of what a Welsh sports hero should be: resilient, talented but with humility, and a deep respect for hard work.
Those same qualities have made him a favourite in weighing rooms across the UK.
Yet, racing often remains invisible in the conversation around Welsh sporting excellence.
The last seven decades have seen this award dominated by rugby internationals, footballers, Olympians and cyclists.
But when a Welsh athlete - and that is what he is - dominates one of Britain’s oldest and toughest professional sports, it demands recognition.
A victory for Bowen this year would send a message that Wales celebrates all sporting excellence, not just those from a handful of mainstream regulars.
Jockeys are among the fittest, most skilled athletes in any discipline. Their work requires not just bravery, but precision, balance, intelligence, and a kind of mental stamina most sports can barely imagine.
Bowen’s career has embodied all of that. He’s endured falls that would end the ambitions of lesser athletes, fought through broken bones and months of rehab, and still come back stronger.
Every ride is a test of nerve; every victory, a lesson in control and calculation.
The BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year award should be about stories of achievement, character and admiration.
This year, no story fits that brief better than Sean Bowen’s.
