An extraordinary winning ride occurred at Chepstow Racecourse recently (25 February), when jockey James Bowen was victorious, despite his right rein snapping shortly after the start of the race.
He was riding Mot A Mot, a five-year-old trained by current champion trainer Nicky Henderson and owned by Walters Plant Hire and Potter Group, in the two-mile Pertemps MPS Maiden Open National Hunt Flat Race.
Credit: Bill Selwyn
The grey, by Martaline, set off keenly before the tack malfunction and initially hung right and even came close to smashing through a set of wings, but James expertly steered him around the left-handed track using all of his horsemanship skills to win impressively by six lengths.
“The rein snapped on the first circuit, and I had one rein all the way around,” said 18-year-old James. “I’ve never had that happen to me, and I never want it to happen again. It went where I was holding it, so I’m glad there were no jumps there — but fair play to the horse, he’s very genuine.”
Unsurprisingly, with no rein, it took a while for James to pull his mount up, but with the help of fellow jockey Paddy Brennan to whom James called to for assistance, he managed to finally dismount in the back straight. Paddy then then ponied Mot A Mot back to the winners’ enclosure aboard Onagatheringstorm (pictured below).
“A big shout out to Paddy Brennan for stopping him after the line — I’d still be doing laps of Chepstow now,” joked James.
Credit: Bill Selwyn
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