December often means a change in diet for many people, but not for Sean Bowen.

Wales’ leading jockey – many lengths ahead of his challengers as he gallops towards the title of Champion Jump Jockey – rises at 5.30am most days and is riding out before breakfast.

“Afterwards, I’ll sit down and have my usual berries and yoghurt with maybe a bit of honey on top.”

Enquiries about whether that is taken with a healthy dollop of porridge are met with a smile.

“No, no. Just the yoghurt and the berries,” he says. “I may have a little bit of porridge once in a while in mid-winter, as a treat.”

So, that’s breakfast sorted. What about lunch? Does he then eat a decent lunch before he spends four hours riding at a meeting?

“No. I would maybe nibble away at a bit of chicken or a bit of fruit, just to keep me going. Then, I’d eat a proper meal when I’m home.”

Bowen is sitting in a room at Chepstow Racecourse, venue for the annual Welsh Grand National on December 27, the biggest horse race of the year in Wales and a gathering point for most loyal fans of the sport, however occasional.

It’s a race that the 26-year-old is keen to win, but then he’s keen to win every race – whether it’s the Welsh Grand National, the “other” Grand National or the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The race he really wants to finish first in, though, more than glory at Chepstow, Aintree or Cheltenham, is the Jump Jockey’s Championship – the Golden Boot of the racing world, where instead of measuring goals, it’s the number of times a jockey can ride a winner.

It’s what all those tiny breakfasts and slivers of chicken for lunch are about, maintaining his weight somewhere around the jump jockey minimum of 10st 2lbs.

If you were told Bowen was one of Wales’ leading athletes but didn’t know his sport, you might guess by his build he was a scrum-half in the Gareth Davies mould, or maybe a low-centre-of-gravity wide man in football, like a Dan James.

Like Davies and James, when the rider from Pembrokeshire is not on a horse, he’s most likely in the gym, grinding it out on a Wattbike or bench-pressing weights.

“Most jockeys are naturally fit through racing, but I like to top it up in the gym and I also have a personal trainer.

“Before I race at a meeting, I’ll go for a run around the course to warm-up, but I wouldn’t say I’m a particularly good runner. Alan Johns is a very good runner, but the best in the weighing room is Conor Ring. He’s incredible.”

Bowen says his personal trainer has also worked with both footballers and rugby players and says the professional’s verdict is that jockeys’ overall fitness compares with both.

“He says there are certain things where we wouldn’t score anywhere near the rugby players or the footballers, but there are other aspects of fitness where they wouldn’t get anywhere near us.

“Footballers need sharp, sprinting speed, which is less important for us. It’s different disciplines, so different aspects of fitness are needed.”

Horses for courses, then. The footballer comparison is relevant since Bowen’s first love growing up with his younger brother James – also a professional jockey – was football.

“Until I was about 10 years old, all I wanted to do was play football. I was Chelsea-mad and my sporting hero then was Frank Lampard.

“I was about 12 when James started riding a pony and I thought I’d better try it, too, because he was younger than me.

“It wasn’t long before I really got into it, and then from ages 12, 13, 14, it was pretty much all I wanted to do every day – all day, until it got dark.”

The football bug left him, although he says it’s returned as a fan in recent years and anyone who witnessed his interview with Sky Sports earlier this year could not have failed to smile at his Premier League reference.

Asked if he was going to stay ahead of his nearest rival – Brian Hughes – and win the title, or crumble under the pressure of front-running, Bowen replied that he needed to be champion otherwise, “I’ll be known as the Arsenal of the weighing room!”

Spoken like a true Chelsea fan.

It helped as a kid that the Bowen boys – Sean is the middle brother of three – had parents, Peter and Karen, who were both racehorse trainers. A bit like Erling Haaland is the son of Alfie Haaland, a former professional footballer at Leeds United.

But here’s the difference between Haaland’s pursuit of the Golden Boot award for top scorer in the Premier League and Bowen’s mission to be champion jockey.

Haaland’s main focus is to enable Manchester City to become European and domestic champions again. The Golden Boot is a nice side-effect.

Bowen is obsessively – perhaps ruthlessly – chasing as many winners as he can get to be champion, almost regardless of where they may be found – from Ayr to Exeter, from Ffos Las to Doncaster.

It means the big races are not his priority. As he openly admits, if there are more winners to be had at the smaller race days that clash with the big ones, he will point his car in the direction of the lesser lights.

“At this moment, I would take being Champion Jockey over riding the winner at Aintree or Cheltenham.

“In an ideal world I’d win a Grand National and a Gold Cup, and also be Champion Jockey, but you can’t have everything.

“For this year, it’s all about the numbers. If I had a big race to ride at the Cheltenham Festival, but three half-decent rides at Sedgefield, then normally you’d go to Cheltenham.

“But this year, I’d go to Sedgefield because I’m chasing the winners.”

That’s like Haaland not playing for Manchester City against Real Madrid in a Champions League semi-final, because he fancied scoring six goals against Newport County in the FA Cup, instead.

One race Bowen will be desperate not to swerve, however, is the Coral Welsh Grand National – a race brother James already holds one over on him as the younger Bowen was the winning jockey in 2017 on Raz De Maree.

“The Welsh Grand National is our biggest race day in Wales, and it’s one now targeted by all the major trainers like Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson.

“They all want a piece of it and a lot of Irish trainers come over to run their horses in it, as well.

“It’s great for Wales that we have such a prestigious race at Chepstow and it’s become one in the calendar that everyone wants to win.”

If Bowen does win as part of a Champion Jockey season, then don’t expect it to go to his head.

The fame and fortune for being a champion in horse racing are still some way behind football.

“I want racing to continue growing as a sport and it has grown hugely in Wales in recent times.

“But we haven’t had many superstar jockeys in the sport, apart from Frankie Dettori and AP McCoy.

“Not many people stop me when I walk down the street or put petrol in my car. I won’t be entering the jungle any time soon.”

The Coral Welsh Grand National takes place at Chepstow Racecourse on December 27.