Griffith Bowen

1906-1991

Born in Maughan Street,  Penarth, Glamorgan, on 26 July,1906, Griffith Milton Bowen served his apprenticeship with Captain Gooch and rode his first winner on 7-1 chance Brownstown, trained by Gooch, in the Apprentices’ Stakes at Wolverhampton on Monday, June 5, 1922. In so doing he beat a young Gordon Richards on the 5-2 favourite Knight Of The Orient by a length and a half, despite having to put up 1lb overweight at 6st 13lb.   

From then on, the two apprentices’ fortunes took very different paths. It would be 26 years before Griff Bowen rode another winner, by which time Gordon Richards was on his way to being crowned champion jockey for the 21st time. 

In fairness, after his apprenticeship had ended, Griff did not hold a professional jockey’s licence until 1943, which he maintained until 1946 without riding a winner. By then he was head lad to trainer John Waugh at Chilton, near Didcot and just getting the occasional ride for the stable.

The winnerless drought was finally broken at Birmingham on May 3, 1948, when landing the valuable Warwick Castle Three-Year-Old Handicap, which boasted a winner’s prize of £1,066 10s, on Craigy Llyn. Taking the lead at around halfway in the six-furlong contest, Griff rode a well-judged race to hold off the challenge of Hay Rake by a head, with Miss Janet a length away third.   

The following day’s local newspaper revealed that Griff was only given the ride because he got on so well with Craigy Llyn on the training gallops. Unfortunately, the paper got a couple of things wrong. It not only spelt his surname as ‘Bowan’, it also reported that it was his first win for 22 years, whereas it was actually 26 years. 

Griff had ridden Craigy Llyn on his previous start in the Greenham Stakes (run that year at Salisbury), finishing last of the 11 runners. Following their Birmingham triumph, he rode Craigy Llyn in his next three races, finishing unplaced at Manchester, unplaced again in the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, then coming home fifth of nine in the July Handicap at Alexandra Park. 

Sam Wragg then took over in the saddle and managed to achieve a couple of placings but no wins. Griff was then given one more opportunity on Craigy Llyn, finishing seventh of 17 in the one-mile Stonebridge Three-Year-Old Handicap back at Birmingham on November 2, 1948. That was his final ride. He did not renew his licence the following year or thereafter. 

Griffith Bowen died at Oxford in April 1991.   He was 84.

Griffith was baptised on 21 August 1906 at St Augustine's Church, Penarth. Griffith was the sixth-born of thirteen children.

His father, Griffith Milton Bowen Sr., was born in 1880. His mother, Rose Hannah, was born on 3 March, 1882. They married in 1899.