Retired top jockey Tom Scudamore runs Brough Scott through the leading six riders competing now, with one surprisingly having a technique he rates as ‘pretty low’

The Times

27 January 2025

The David Power Jockeys’ Cup is a new initiative, providing a human narrative to go alongside the equine action through the jumps season, and offering £1.5million in prize money to the leading riders on races televised by ITV.

 Points are awarded for the first four jockeys in each race, with the winner receiving ten points, the runner-up eight, third getting six, and fourth receiving four. The competition ends at Aintree on April 4, with the leading rider earning £500,000 (the equivalent for a jockey of winning ten Grand Nationals) and prize money going down to tenth place (£10,000). There are also prizes for the trainers and stable staff, who have supported the respective jockeys.

With the competition nearing its midway point, Brough Scott has been talking to the retired top jockey, Tom Scudamore, whose 1,499 victories over jumps in Britain and Ireland included ten at the Cheltenham Festival, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the six leading contenders.

Scudamore has ridden against them all and carries a unique perspective. He began as a 16-year-old riding against greats such as Richard Dunwoody and AP McCoy.

“Whether it’s rose-tinted glasses or not, I firmly believe that the weighing room was stronger when I started, but that’s irrelevant,” he said. “These six are all very successful and that is what matters.”

Sean Bowen

Technique
Sean Bowen’s technique is unique to him and he would be the one rider it would be foolish to copy. He rides much shorter than the others (that is, he is perched higher in the saddle). When he was a kid he rode longer, but looked ungainly. Now he rides short, but it suits his compact physique, and as he can squat and squeeze a horse better in the compact position, his strength means he can push a horse all the way.

Equine empathy
I rate him very highly on this because he does things a jockey shouldn’t do just because he gets a feel from a horse. I saw him on one the other day: he lost his position at the third last and you’d think he was finished, then suddenly he got his mount rolling. It’s intuition. He rides to his own drum

Strategy

This is where Sean is still a bit short in the big days. It’s mainly through lack of experience. What happens Monday to Friday doesn’t necessarily work in the top races. His record shows that day in, day out, he’s the most consistent of all jockeys, but the big races are different in that the pace never eases. So the one omission on his burgeoning CV is a Cheltenham Festival winner. But it will come.

Harry Skelton

Technique
Harry Skelton’s method is also a bit different from the others. With his background (his father, Nick, is an Olympic equestrian gold-medal winner) it is more of a showjumping technique. The closest comparison would be Robbie Power (also the son of a top showjumper). Their hands are a bit busier than the orthodox — we were always taught to keep our hands still. But this works for him.

Empathy
His empathy is very good. He’s been with horses all his life and riding for his brother, Dan, he is such an integral part of the team that he can ride with the confidence that they are going to trust what he thinks about a horse.

Strategy
He is the one that has improved the most in the past few years. There was a time when you could read Harry very easily. You could watch him in a race and see him make what should be the right decision at the wrong time. But he’s a much more finessed rider now than he was two years ago, and that is a great credit to him.

Sam Twiston-Davies

Technique
He’s an all-action jockey. At times, Sam Twiston-Davies can be busier than I like, especially in a finish where his will to win and excitement can overtake things. People say, “Isn’t that fantastic, he’s giving it everything,” but I think it’s a hindrance. You need to grip with your lower leg, or your ankle, the way Ruby Walsh did, and the way Ryan Moore does so wonderfully now on the flat. They are the ones you need to copy.

I only rode with one genius, though, and that was AP McCoy. Just like Frankie Dettori, or Kieren Fallon or Lester Piggott, he did things you couldn’t understand. You couldn’t copy him.

Walsh was a brilliant jockey, he made no mistakes and was absolutely fabulous. But I could understand him exactly. He knew what he was trying to do and he could carry it out. I knew what I was trying to do, but couldn’t always do it! Nonetheless, Sam is very good. His record tells you that. He is very strong and wiry and has a great body position over a fence.

Empathy
He rates highly in this department. He has been with horses all his life and his innate knowledge of them has always been impressive. He’s a very good judge of what a horse can do. When he gets off one, he can tell you what it is capable of better than anyone riding today.

Strategy
Very good. Sam reads a race well and you rarely see him in the wrong position. Being in the right place is one of the most important things in race-riding and as regards positioning, he would be second only to Nico de Boinville.

Harry Cobden

Technique
At times, Harry Cobden is very stylish and can be outstanding, but at other times, he is a little agricultural — his elbows come out and he bumps up and down in the saddle. But he can be very effective. Stage Star, at the last fence in the 2023 Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham, was a great example: it was quite agricultural but it worked.

 He rides quite upright, a bit different from the others. But he can get horses to roll and jump for him. There are times when he is sitting into a horse and you say, “Go with it,” and he doesn’t. He gets a bit rigid, but the moments when he gets it all together, he is the closest we have to John Francome.

Empathy
Again, Harry rates very high, because he has been with horses all his life and understands them very well. He is still young and is only going to get better.

Strategy
Chasing and winning the jockeys’ title last year was very good for him. It gave him a consistency and a confidence in what he was doing. He hasn’t exactly gone backwards this season, but through an injury lay-off and horses not running so well, it hasn’t always been there this term. Yet his ride on Burdett Road was as good a display as I have seen all season, it was superb. He is an elite rider, but as yet, has not quite had the same consistency as last term.

Gavin Sheehan

Technique
If you were a young rider, Gavin Sheehan’s is the classical technique you would want to copy: the way he sits into his horses and how his lower leg stays rigid. Also, how he changes his hands as he shortens the reins. He is very strong and rhythmical. However much of a hold of a horse’s head he has (that is, the connection between the rider’s hand on the rein and the bit on the bridle), he is still very strong through his body behind. There are very few who can do that.

Empathy
All six of these riders score pretty highly, but I am not sure quite how much of a judge Gavin is. He might not have grown up with horses as much as the others, and you wouldn’t describe him as a horseman as much as Harry Cobden or Harry Skelton, or Nico de Boinville.

Strategy
He is right up there in the Sam Twiston-Davies territory. I saw him one day at Lingfield when they went too quick and he just dropped his horse in and swept through and collected. The other day, he made the running at Haydock, nicking lengths at all the right places. Yes, he is outstanding.

Nico de Boinville

Technique
Compared to the others, I rate Nico de Boinville pretty low on this. He is not very streamlined and can be a bit agricultural. He has always been a bit weak in a finish, but he is much better than he was and is very effective. You might say he has been weak, but he has won more races by a short-head than anyone else.

Empathy
He has ridden all his life and has a special understanding of trainer Nicky Henderson’s horses. Nico is an old-fashioned stable jockey. He would be in three times a week, and if he is asked for one fancied ride at Ayr, or three horses to school at Seven Barrows, Henderson always comes first.

Strategy
He is the most tactically astute rider of them all. His handling of Iberico Lord in the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury last season was the most classical piece of race-riding you will ever see. He never left the inside, every move was forward, never let the pace get away from him, and challenged at all the right moments. He understands the flow of how these big races are run and that is why he has such an exceptional record at the top level.

Conclusion

These are all fine riders, and the above is my analysis from having ridden alongside them. But in the end, remember the words of AP McCoy when I went to him for advice. “Look,” he said. “You can do all the plans and technique tweaks you like, but when it gets desperate, all that goes out of the window. Just win the f***ing thing.”