{"piano":{"sandbox":"false","aid":"u28R38WdMo","rid":"R7EKS5F","offerId":"OF3HQTHR122A","offerTemplateId":"OTQ347EHGCHM"}}
Trending:

Having just achieved his first century, double Cheltenham Festival winner James Bowen reveals the benefits of long-standing sibling rivalries

Martha Terry Martha Terry

    • Fresh from Cheltenham Festival, the jump jockey tells Martha Terry about his racing childhood, the invincibility of youth and keeping a level head, in this exclusive article for H&H subscribers

    James Bowen had waited years for a Cheltenham Festival winner. This time round, he left with two. For those who knew his roots, it felt almost inevitable.

    Childhoods don’t come much more idyllic than the Bowen boys’. The three brothers spent much of their schooldays playing with ponies in the Pembrokeshire countryside: racing ponies, racing each other, racing their cousins, racing themselves.

    When James was 13, he left school – ostensibly to be home-schooled while pursuing his racing commitments. In reality, the yard, not the classroom, was the real crucible for his education.

    “I didn’t spend any time on schoolwork,” says James as we chat while he drives from a morning gallop at Newbury to racing at Kempton. “If I couldn’t be a jockey, there wasn’t much chance of another career to fall back on.”

    He didn’t need one. Aged 16, James was crowned the youngest-ever winner of the Welsh National, followed by becoming champion conditional jockey with 58 winners. Nine years later, last month at Cheltenham, he franked that prodigious talent, bagging not just his first Festival trophy but a double. On day one, he steered Holloway Queen to win the National Hunt Challenge Cup before Jingko Blue galloped to victory in the BetMGM Cup Handicap Hurdle the following day.

    Jingko Blue and James Bowen jump the last first time round on the way to winning the BetMGM Cup Handicap Hurdle on day two of the 2026 Cheltenham Racing Festival

    James Bowen rides Jingko Blue (right) to victory the BetMGM Cup Handicap Hurdle on day two of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival. Credit: Getty Images

    “A win there is incredible, and I wasn’t expecting much – especially from Holloway Queen as I thought she’d hate the ground,” James says. “Nicky Henderson actually asked me before the race if I’d run her. I said, ‘It’s up to you,’ but I’m glad she did run.

    “The atmosphere is amazing, but you don’t hear as much when you’re on the horse. It’s when you watch it back that you realise just what a big deal winning there is.

    “I’ve watched it back multiple times,” he grins. “I’m still watching it back now.”

    James is the youngest son of trainer Peter Bowen, brother of champion jump jockey Sean and trainer Mickey. Although riding was on offer as soon as he could sit up, James wasn’t interested early on.

    “I didn’t enjoy riding much until I was eight,” he says. “I rode a couple of times, but my mum didn’t let me off the lead rope and I didn’t want to do it unless I was let off. But once I was on my own, I got into it.”

    At the heart of this utopian childhood was a 12hh roan called Striker.

    You may also enjoy reading:

    Martha Terry
    Martha Terry

    H&H features editor
    Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
    Martha Terry

    You may like...