Champion jockey elect shares best Scottish Grand National Festival chance (2025)

Sean Bowen's name will join some of the greats like the legendary AP McCoy

Super Sean Bowen didn’t scoop the new £500,000 jockey's prize to help buy a new car or pay for his wedding.

But the champion-elect reckons carving his name alongside the jump-racing greats with a title win is simply priceless.

Bowen heads to Ayr’s Coral Scottish Grand National meeting on the brink of championship glory.

Cruelly denied by injury and pal Harry Cobden 12 months ago, the power-packed punters’ pal is setting the record straight.

While some attention in the season switched to the inaugural David Power Jockeys Cup and the half-million quid won by eventual winner Harry Skelton, the real prize of the official title belongs in the talented hands of Bowen.

The 27-year-old is set to join the elite as a champion with a massive lead heading for the two-day Coral Scottish Grand National-led spectacular in Ayrshire and said: “I suppose as a kid, you dream of being champion jockey, so I’m very lucky to be challenging and, hopefully now, we can say it looks like I will be this year.

“You’ve just got to keep doing what you’re doing and hopefully it’ll just happen. I’ve never been so busy,

“I think I’ve had 200 more rides than any other jockey this season, so the car’s done 75,000 miles, which is crazy in any person’s life.

"It’s hard work, but it’s well worth it when you lift that trophy. I was lucky, I got fifth in the Jockeys’ Cup, which is £60,000, so that’s a lot of money in itself. Incredible season.

"The Jockeys’ Cup is massive money, but at the same time, we’re in sport and there’s very few sports that have as little money in sports as we do, so we’re lucky that this money’s come in.

“It’s the first year of doing it, so I suppose the Jockeys’ Championship has been something you watch growing up and want to be like AP McCoy or Richard Johnson or Brian Hughes.

"I remember racing the ponies up the gallop trying to be Brian Hughes, so to get your name on that trophy is obviously priceless.

"It’s something I’ve wanted for a long time. Having my name next to AP’s and stuff would be crazy. But I’m as proud for my family as anything because mum and dad have worked as hard as I have to get to this point and I’m very lucky to have all my family’s support as well.”

Success for Bowen will spark an incredible time as he gets set for his summer wedding to Harriett and it’s reward for that 75,000-mile annual motorway slog.

He smiled: “I try and get two years out of them if I can, but my cars don’t last long. A new one this year? I don’t know, I have a wedding to pay for and a few things, so not this year. It’s been a very good year so far, so hopefully that’ll continue all the way through.”

Fittingly, Bowen, who rides Brandt for trainer Cian Collins in the big one, can just about seal the deal at Ayr and the upcoming Perth seasonal opening meetings.

He said: “I seem to get a lot of success coming up north and Perth has been probably my luckiest of any track. I really enjoy coming here and the crowd’s always very good.

"You want that good start out the blocks and Perth is obviously where I seem to pick up a lot of summer rides.

“Gordon Elliott’s obviously been a big supporter of my Perth journeys and Olly Murphy this season as well, I think I had a four-timer there in the summer, so it’s one of the biggest parts of it, to be honest. It’s a lot of driving, but it’s well worth it when you get at least one winner anyway.

"Like Perth, the last three days of the season, I think I had five winners over the three days last season, so it’d be nice to sort of finish it all off at Perth where I’ve had probably my most winners this season.”

On his Ayr chances, Bowen likes one on Friday's card as he added: “Olly runs The Four Sixes who ran really well up there last year, won last time out, so he’ll be my best chance at the meeting.”