Pony-riding tearaway to level-headed pro: the continuous rise of James Bowen

Better late than never, eh?

But what is ten days when you're a 16-year-old riding sensation with a conditional jockeys' title within reach and a job among the equine galacticos at champion trainer Nicky Henderson's Seven Barrows yard.

Henderson's long wait for a National of any kind – even the Shetland Pony variety, he will admit – goes on after Beware The Bear was pulled up in the Coral Welsh Grand National, but James Bowen, whose first ride under rules came only in April, added his nation's most important race to his CV with a clinical execution on Irish raider Raz De Maree.