Champion jockey Bowen criticises 'stupid' calendar

TL;DR

Sean Bowen has been named Britain's leading jumps jockey for the second consecutive year, finishing with 241 winners. He criticized the racing calendar as 'stupid' and called for more breaks for jockeys.

Key points

Sean Bowen is Britain's leading jumps jockey for the second year.
He finished the season with 241 winners.
Harry Skelton and James Bowen were second and third, respectively.
Bowen criticized the racing calendar for lack of breaks.

Sean BowenHarry SkeltonJames Bowen

Sean Bowen celebrating his second Jockey Championship win [Getty Images]

Welsh jockey Sean Bowen has been crowned Britain's leading jumps rider for the second year in a row - but has called for changes to racing's "stupid" calendar.

Bowen, who officially retained his crown after yesterday's racing at Sandown, says officials should allow for more meaningful breaks for jockeys.

The 28-year-old has dominated the 2025-26 season, finishing on 241 winners, with second-placed Harry Skelton on 127 winners, and Sean's younger brother, James, finishing on 105 winners in third place.

But he urged authorities to revisit the schedule in the future, to ensure jockeys can have time off earlier than this year's break.

"The racing calendar is fairly stupid, if I'm being honest," said Bowen.

"I'll have two days off [after Sandown's jump finale] and then I'm off to Punchestown. There's only two days put together twice all summer until our August break."

The Pembrokeshire-born jockey has ridden in over 1,000 races this season, almost 500 more than second placed Harry Skelton.

"I think the calendar as a whole is not right, it doesn't really work, and two days put together twice all summer is crazy, really," he added.

"You have a day on, day off, day on, day off. It'd be very, very easy to put four or five days together, but they don't really think of that."

There will be a 19-day summer jumping break from 27 July to 14 August.

A British Horse Racing Authority spokesperson said: "We acknowledge the difficulties associated with optimising the fixture list during the summer and have continued to work to strike the appropriate balance, while maintaining the most competitive racing as possible throughout the period."