‘He’ll reach the top’: Racing icons back boy wonder Bowen
TEENAGE riding sensation James Bowen has been tipped for the top by two of National Hunt racing’s greatest icons.
Champion jockey Richard Johnson and Mick Fitzgerald, who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National and is now a jockey’s coach and ITV pundit, believe victory for the 16-year-old prodigy in Saturday’s Coral Welsh National represents just the start of a glittering career.
Bowen won the Chepstow race on 16/1 shot Raz De Maree, who at 13 is nearly as old as he is.
‘What James has achieved is incredible as he hadn’t ridden in a point-to-point 12 months ago, yet has now won the Welsh National at 16,’ said Johnson.
‘James is a naturally gifted rider but he also keeps his cool when many his age would get excited. It would take a brave man to say he won’t be at the top in years to come,’ he added.
Fitzgerald is Bowen’s jockey coach and insists the Welsh youngster can be a future champion. He said: ‘James has a wonderful attitude. He had Friday off and came to my house for two hours and we went through the races he had been beaten in. He is hard on himself as a rider. That marks him as a special talent.’
Meanwhile, Next Destination could head straight to the Cheltenham Festival following a workmanlike victory in the Lawlor’s of Naas Novice Hurdle yesterday.
The Willie Mullins-trained six-yearold looked the real deal on his two other starts over hurdles and was a prohibitively priced 8/15 favourite to complete his hat-trick in the Grade One over two and a half miles.
It was not plain-sailing for Next Destination, but he knuckled down after the final flight under Paul Townend to see off Cracking Smart by a length.
Mullins said: ‘He’s improving all the time. It was a very slow-run race and, tactically, it was a lot different than we thought it would be.’
Mullins confirmed the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle as Next Destination’s likely Cheltenham Festival assignment, but is not ruling out stepping up to three miles for the Albert Bartlett – or even coming back to two miles for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
Next Destination was one of three winners on the day for Mullins, with Demi Sang (11-10 favourite), Asthuria (1-3 favourite) and Another Barney (4-1) winning the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Novice Chase, Mares Beginners Chase and Maiden Hurdle respectively.