Fast-improving Ben Jones has established himself as one of the top 10 National Hunt jockeys in the country.

The soon-to-be 26-year-old is the number one rider for Naunton trainer Ben Pauling and last season racked up 77 winners, his best yet.

They included a victory at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, his second at the showpiece occasion following his high-profile success on the Harry Redknapp-owned Shakem Up’arry 12 months earlier.

He’s had plenty of other big wins, too, so it’s no wonder he’s looking ahead to the next few months with great excitement.

The ever-popular three-day November Meeting at Cheltenham is just around the corner – it starts on Friday 14^th November – and Jones is looking to build on the rapid progress he has made in recent times.

“I want to keep improving, I’ve not reached my best yet,” he told The Local Answer. “I want to do better each season and see how far I can go.

“Every jockey, trainer and racing fan looks at the stats; last season was my best in terms of winners and my best in terms of prizemoney.”

That coincided with him being offered the role of Pauling’s stable jockey, a position he took up almost exactly 12 months ago.

“When Mr Pauling asked me to be his number one I didn’t even have to think about it, it was a no-brainer,” said Jones, who rode 55 winners in 2023/24.

And it’s a partnership that is clearly working, even though it wasn’t a partnership that was planned.

“It happened by fluke,” admitted Jones. “It was at the Aintree Festival in 2023 and there was a spare ride in the three-mile novices’ chase.

“Nobody wanted to ride it and my agent at the time Gordy [Clarkson] put my name forward. I was happy to take the ride because I was riding in the National that day.

“The horse didn’t have any great expectations but I jumped the last in front before just being beaten on the line by a good horse.”

Pauling obviously liked what he saw that day, even though Bowtogreatness lost out to the Dan Skelton-trained Midnight River.

“He said to maybe pop in over the summer and ride out so I did. I kept popping in and it all went from there,” Jones said.

That Aintree ride was a big moment in Jones’ career, a career that was always going to involve horses.

His mum and dad, Emma and Dai, were both amateur jockeys and Jones, who grew up in Carmarthen in West Wales, remembers: “I was always around horses when I grew up.”

When he left school he enrolled at Hereford College on a farrier course but he also rode out three days a week for trainer Paul Hamer in Carmarthen, something he really enjoyed.

“I went point-to-pointing with him in my first season and in my second season I thought, ‘I want to give racing a go’.”

And he’s certainly been doing that ever since. He gave up the farrier course and by the time he was 17 he had moved to Somerset to team up with legendary trainer Philip Hobbs.

“He was in his heyday back then,” Jones said. “When I first started, Dickie [Richard] Johnson was his main jockey.

“Mr Hobbs had over 100 horses in training and he was winning more than £1 million in prize money a season. I couldn’t have wished for a more perfect start.”

And Jones was a quick learner.

“I stayed as an amateur rider for another couple of seasons, I rode 39 point-to-point winners,” he said. “In my second year I started riding under Rules, primarily for other trainers just to get me going. That got me noticed.

“Then Mr Hobbs said it was time to go conditional and I rode out my claim in under two seasons. He was brilliant, I’ll never forget what he did for me, I still ride out for him every Monday now.”

Jones was also very well supported by the likes of Rebecca Curtis, Ben Clarke and Emma Lavelle, who trained his first really big winner.

That was on De Rasher Counter in the Ladbrokes Trophy Chase at Newbury in November 2019 and Jones said: “That got me on the map, I probably didn’t appreciate quite how big it was at the time.”

The married dad-of-one certainly appreciates a big-race win when it comes along now and happily it’s something he’s got quite used to.

“My first Grade 1 winner was very special, that’s something I’ll always remember,” said Jones as he recalled the Pauling-trained The Jukebox Man’s success in the Ladbrokes Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day last year.

Two months later he gained his second Grade 1 winner when Handstands, also trained by Pauling, beat Jango Baie in the Virgin Bet Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown.

“He wasn’t the favourite but he jumped the last upsides to beat the Arkle winner,” said Jones. “It’s a huge buzz to be in those races, those are the races I want to be involved in.”

And he was involved in another big race at this year’s Cheltenham Festival when he guided the Rebecca Curtis-trained Haiti Couleurs to victory in the National Hunt Challenge Cup Novices’ Handicap Chase.

Twelve months earlier it was the Pauling-trained Shakem Up’arry who had given him his first Festival winner in the TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase.

Owner and former top football manager Harry Redknapp knows what it takes to win on the biggest sporting stages and Jones enjoys riding for him.

The 78-year-old also owns The Jukebox Man and the ever-respectful Jones said: “Mr Redknapp is a top, top guy. He’s very, very level-headed.

“He just says to me, ‘You know what you’re doing’. He’s very sound.”

And there was plenty of sound when Shakem Up’arry won at Cheltenham 18 months ago.

“Everybody was cheering, it was more like a football stadium than a grandstand at a racecourse,” recalled Jones.

Jones' winner in the first race at Cheltenham on Friday took his tally for the season to 24 and while he’s obviously looking to kick on, he refuses to look too far ahead.

“I’m quite level-headed,” he said. “I’m super excited for what’s to come. Mr Pauling has got a top team.

“But I’ve always said from day one that I’ll take each day as it comes.”

And while that is obviously his mindset, Jones could be forgiven if he has half an eye on the last day of this year’s November Meeting.

That’s because he’ll turn 26 on that day and he’d love to celebrate a winner on his birthday at the home of National Hunt racing.