South Wales Evening Post column, January 17, 2025
HERE’S a question guaranteed to divide all sports fans out there: who are the ‘toughest’ competitors in the world? Rugby Union players? Rugby League stars? Tour de France cyclists? Olympic rowers? Marathon runners? Boxers? In nearly 50 years of watching and reporting on different sports, I’ve met and interviewed people from all the above sports. In terms of being the ‘toughest’, none of them come close to National Hunt jockeys. Evidence that they are as tough as teak is provided daily on racecourses around the UK – with the latest example happening at our local Ffos Las track last Saturday. Pembrokeshire’s James Bowen, who comes from a family of fearless horsemen, was the latest jockey to reflect that one second you can be sailing over a hurdle or fence at 35mph, and the next you can be face down in the mud wondering how you’ve narrowly escaped death. Bowen is part of a long line of Welsh jockeys who have diced with death while competing at the highest level in racing. When I was...