Sean Bowen started the new year pretty much as he ended the old one – and with his sights still set on a record-breaking total. He still harbours hopes of surpassing Tony McCoy’s record of 289 winners in a single season.
Three winners in as many days at the start of 2026 helped boost his total this campaign to 170, though Bowen will be pinning his hopes on an end to the freezing temperatures which caused a number of jumps fixtures to be lost over the weekend and at the start of this week.
Bowen would need to ride roughly 30 winners a month in order to break McCoy’s landmark figure. It is certainly a tough task, but not an impossible one.
Bowen bagged a winner at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day aboard promising bumper performer Solly’s Gold, while his quench for winners saw him make the long trek to Ayr the following day where he landed a double for Olly Murphy. The comfortable victory of Kings Champion in a novice hurdle was particularly taking.
Younger brother James also began the year in style by capturing a £50,000 three-mile handicap chase on Herakles Westwood for trainer Warren Greatrex.
And on Saturday Bowen and Greatrex combined again when All In You was delivered with a well-timed run as he came from last to first to land a two-mile handicap hurdle at Sandown in the style of a horse on the upgrade. It would be no surprise to see him aimed at the valuable William Hill Hurdle at Newbury in February.
And there was plenty of Welsh success elsewhere as the feelgood factor so prevalent over the festive season courtesy of Ben Jones’ victory in the King George VI Chase at Kempton and the memorable triumph of the Rebecca Curtis-trained Haiti Couleurs in the Coral Welsh Grand National showed no sign of disappearing anytime soon.
Jones and trainer Ben Pauling remained in good form at Sandown as their two-mile chaser Vanderpoel set himself up for a possible tilt at the Grand Annual at Cheltenham in March with a decisive success.
And the in-form Sam Thomas landed another Saturday winner as Range held on in a driving finish in a two-and-a-half mile handicap hurdle. It was the 17th winner of the campaign for the Cardiff handler, who is operating at a highly impressive 36 per cent.
We have an additional meeting at Ffos Las on Thursday 8th January and also have a fixture on Friday 30th January.
Monmouthshire based owner-breeder Robert Bailey sadly died at the age of 81 recently. His funeral takes place on Saturday 10th January at 10.15am at St Tewdric’s Church in Mathern.
He owned horses for the best part of 30 years, winning a total of 125 races, most of them when jointly owned with his wife Nina. Their silks of red with a black star, white sleeves and cap are familiar sights at their local tracks, Chepstow and Bath. Their horses have won eleven races at Chepstow.
Many of them have the word Glamorous in their name, due to Robert’s success with the mare Glamorous Spirit. He bought her in 2009 and she won three times that season and twice the year after, including a Group 3 at The Curragh. This enhanced her worth as a broodmare and after selling her Robert started buying some of her stock and that of her dam Glamorous Air – at first to race, and then to breed from them.
Some will be surprised to learn his first winner, in 1996, was a hurdler called Tony’s Mist, trained by Milton Bradley. It was his Robert’s only winner over jumps. He came to prefer speedy flat-racers who could run often and over several seasons.
78 of his winners were trained by Ron Harris near Chepstow. Noverre To Go supplied eight of those wins at courses as varied as York and Brighton. Judge ‘n Jury won four times while in Robert’s ownership and in 2010 was beaten only five lengths in the Prix de l’Abbaye.
Just Glamorous gave connections some glamorous days out by winning a Listed race at Ascot in 2017 and, the year before, a Chantilly Group 3. In second place was Marsha, who turned the tables three weeks later by winning the Abbaye. Fast and durable, Just Glamorous raced for ten seasons, his tenth and final win coming in 2023 when trained by Chris Mason. He sprang a 22/1 surprise at Salisbury, making all the running.
Their last winner was Glamorous Breeze at Lingfield on 4 September. With that effort the consistent seven-year-old proved she was as good as ever. It’s to be hoped that she and the other Glamorouses will continue to enjoy success on the track.
The next meeting at Chepstow is Tuesday 27th January.
