The curtain came down on the jump season with the Bowen brothers (photographed) at the centre of the headlines.
Sean rode eight winners in the final week of the campaign as he celebrated becoming champion jockey for the second time in style, James partnered a big-race winner on the final day of the season at Sandown, and Mickey had the perhaps unique distinction of winning the same race at Perth twice within the space of an hour.
Sean and James even managed to share a dead-heat.
Sean may have ended up winnerless on Jumps Finale Day, but he enjoyed a productive week nevertheless. It began at Ffos Las in midweek when he once again stole the show at his home track with a treble.
His three winners came courtesy of the Olly Murphy-trained pair of Trust House and Lemon Leaf, while he took the three-mile chase on Esperti. The nine-year-old, trained in Pembrokeshire by Dai Rees, is fast becoming a Ffos Las specialist as this was his third triumph at the course within the space of 14 months. In that time he has also been successful at Fontwell and Fakenham.
From there Sean made the long trip north to Perth, where he bagged five winners during the course of the three-day meeting.
One of those came as he dead-heated with his younger brother on American Mike in a three-mile handicap chase. James was on board Statuario for Mickey, with the pair pulling well clear of the remainder.
Incredibly, it is the second occasion that the brothers have shared a dead heat. They did it in 2024 in a juvenile hurdle at Cheltenham.
That was one of James’ four winners at the Scottish venue. It looked like he had emulated his brother with a haul of five, but after originally being called the winner of the closing bumper on board Ksar D’Oudairies, it emerged that the wrong result had been announced and the winner was actually Fiskardo.
Mickey Bowen trained the first two home, so in a strange sequence of events, he won the race, lost the race, then immediately won it again.
James put that behind him by riding the final big-race winner of the season, partnering the odds-on Jingko Blue – whom he had ridden to Cheltenham Festival glory back in March – to win a Grade 2 contest at Sandown.
He ended the season third in the jockeys’ table – behind his brother and Harry Skelton – with 105 winners. Ben Jones finished fourth with 102.
Jack Tudor waved goodbye to the campaign by taking a novice handicap chase at
Sandown on Kahavari, but Sam Thomas was denied another valuable handicap chase success when Our Power was denied in the final stride of the bet365 Gold Cup by the fast-finishing Havaila.
The next jump meeting at Ffos Las is on Tuesday, May 5.
