Category: Jockeys

In the 2021 Flat Jockeys’ Championship, decided on winners between May 1 and October 16, Daniel Tudhope finished eighth, with 76 winners from 489 rides, at a strike rate of 16%. He finished 77 winners adrift of eventual winner Oisin Murphy. In 2021, the vast of majority of his winners, 41, have been supplied by Upper Hemsley trainer David O’Meara, with whom Tudhope has formed a fruitful partnership since becoming his stable jockey a decade ago.

A graduate of Northern Racing College, Tudhope became apprenticed to Malton trainer Declan Carroll in 2003 but, after riding 95 winners in two and a half years as an apprentice, experienced what he later described as a ‘sticky period’. After losing his claim, his fledgling career reached his nadir in 2010, when he rode just six winners. The following season, though, Tudhope joined forces with O’Meara, embarking on a path that would take him right to the top of his profession.

Tudhope rode 100 winners in a season for the first time in 2013 and did so again in 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Indeed, at one point in 2019, he was odds-on favourite to win the jockeys’ title, before narrowly losing out to Oisin Murphy. He did, however, enjoy his most successful season so far, with 159 winners, and reached the career milestone of 1,000 domestic winners on Ingleby Hollow, fittingly trained by O’Meara, at Thirsk in June. At that point, Tudhope acknowledged the role O’Meara had played in building his career, saying, ‘You have your ups and downs in this game. I was lucky enough to find David at the right time, and if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have got here.’

In November, 2009, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) introduced a new rule, which forbade jockeys from remounting their horses, upon pain of disqualification, at any point in a race after the field comes ‘under starter’s orders’. There are no exceptions to the rule, which introduced the possibility of races being declared ‘void’ because none of the runners complete the course unscathed. Indeed, that eventuality occurred for the first time in a novices’ chase at Towcester in March, 2011, when all four runners fell or unseated rider.

However, in the case of a jockey who parts company with his or her mount on the way to the start, or after arrival, but before the horses are in the stalls, or lined up at the start, remounting is permitted, certain caveats. Regardless of the reason for the jockey being unseated, the course doctor and veterinary surgeon must be in agreement that remounting is safe and in the best interest of horse and rider. Provided both are free from injury and the horse’s tack is intact, the jockey is allowed to remount and continue.

Sean Bowen is the son of Pembrokeshire trainer Peter Bowen and the elder brother of James Bowen, who, in 2017/18, became the youngest champion conditional jockey in history. In 2014, Bowen won the Wilkinson Sword Edge Novice Riders’ Point-To-Point Championship, thereby attracting the attention of Paul Nicholls. He subsequently joined the multiple champion trainer as a conditional jockey and made an immediate impact. In his first full season, 2014/15, he rode 51 winners, despite being sidelined for six weeks with a shoulder injury, and won the conditional jockeys’ title by a margin of seven winners from his nearest rival, Nico de Boinville. Indeed, he had the distinction of being the youngest champion conditional in history until usurped by his younger brother three seasons.

As far as the Grand National is concerned, Sean Bowen first lined up in the celebrated steeplechase on April 11, 2015, bidding to become the youngest winning jockey since Bruce Hobbs, who was aged 17 years and three months when he won on Battleship in 1938. His mount on that occasion was the 9-year-old Mon Parrain, trained by Paul Nicholls, on whom he had previously won a handicap chase, in first-time blinkers, at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day. Sent off at 33/1 in the National, Mon Parrain raced in mid-division for most of the way, but was never really a factor and, while he completed the course, eventually trailed in eleventh of 19 finishers, a respectful 56 lengths behind the winner, Many Clouds.