Simon Cowley

Born on November 20, 1962, Simon Cowley is the son of former jump jockey Paddy Cowley, best remembered as a brave jockey of the 1960s and early 1970s when his riding successes included two Welsh Grand Nationals, on Motel in 1963 and Royal Toss in 1971.

Simon always wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. At the age of twelve he was riding out for Frenchie Nicholson. It was a vintage time at that famous academy of jockeys with Walter Swinburn and Richard Fox just about to graduate. Frenchie gave Simon two pieces of advice: firstly, that he would be too heavy for the Flat and, secondly, that he should stay at school and obtain qualifications. Simon not only stayed on at school, he also went to Oxford and obtained an honours degree in classics, thus becoming one of the very few Oxbridge-educated professional jockeys.

It had to be Oxford that Simon chose – it was closer to Lambourn than Cambridge and allowed him to ride out in the mornings before going to tutorials. He was soon getting rides as an amateur and rode his first winner on Rex Carter’s Met Officer in a Market Rasen bumper on September 29, 1984.

When studies were completed, he joined Peter Cundell as an assistant trainer 1986. It was during his time there that he decided he was just not cut out to be a trainer. He preferred the life of a jockey and that was the route he decided to take. Having previously ridden as an amateur, he turned professional at the start of the 1987/88 season and rode as a conditional for Cheltenham trainer Jim Wilson. All young jockeys dream of a good horse to get them going and Simon was lucky enough to find one straight away in the Owen O’Neill-trained Mole Board.

Following comfortable victories on Mole Board in bumpers at Warwick and Market Rasen, they made an inauspicious start to hurdling when falling at Haydock. Thereafter, however, Simon and Mole Board rattled off a hat-trick of wins, starting in novice hurdles at Nottingham and Cheltenham and culminating in a four-length beating of Nohalmdun in the De Vere Hotels Hurdle at Haydock on March 4, 1988. Twelve days later they started warm favourites for the Sun Alliance Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, but luck deserted them and they could finish only eighth behind Rebel Song.

Shortly after the second of Mole Board’s bumper wins at Market Rasen, Simon had reached the age of 25 and so was unable to claim an allowance. The time spent at university meant that he turned professional comparatively late. Having ridden a dozen winners from 84 rides during that 1987/88 campaign, five of them on Mole Board, he then endured a long winnerless streak, made even worse when the horse on which he had made his name was transferred to another trainer, Jim Old.

Things finally came good at Bangor-on-Dee on April 15, 1989, when novice hurdler Flair Mesh dug deep and stayed on well to beat 11/8 favourite Deep Flash. This victory gave Simon particular pleasure because Flair Mesh provided Paddy Cowley with his first winner as a trainer.

Cheltenham-based, Simon continued to ride for his father and for Jim Wilson but had to battle for outside mounts. He eventually gave up the unequal struggle and, in 1995, became a stipendiary steward, a role he has now carried out for more than 20 years.