Mason Paetel with Wendy Hoggard (left) of White Rose Saddlery and Adele Mulrennan at the Go Racing In Yorkshire Annual Awards Lunch
Photo: Hannah Ali
As you read this, Mason Paetel, the winner of our Go Racing In Yorkshire Future Stars Apprentice series, supported by White Rose Saddlery, has just returned from Palm Meadows, Miami. But he wasn’t sunning himself and resting on his laurels. No, the seventeen year old was spending some time with trainer Saffie Joseph, learning how they do things in America.
Not from a racing family, Mason was first introduced to horses at a friend’s birthday party, which had a pony theme. From there, Mason’s parents took him to a riding school, near their home in South Wales and he never looked back.
After showing enough interest and commitment, his parents bought him his first pony and he was introduced to pony racing. Mason took part in the racecourse series over four years and knew after his first ride that he wanted to be a jockey.
The Paetel’s are lucky, in that while they do not have a racing background, close family friend Tim Vaughan, most certainly does and he was able to point Mason in the right direction.
Upon leaving school, Mason went straight into racing and while in his first job, he saw and advert for an apprentice with James Owen and he went straight for it, getting his license when he was still 16.
Now based in Newmarket, Mason has been with James for nearly a year and is looked after by agent, Chris Dixon. The pair are clearly getting something right as they finished 2025 with 32 wins from 267 rides, a 12% strike rate.
The trip to America was a tactical to plan, to allow Mason to build his experience, while protecting his current 5lb claim.
“The aim next year is to go for the apprentice title and I want to save my claim for that.” Said Mason.
Having had some time on the sidelines due to a lengthy whip ban, Mason has really worked on getting things right.
“I’ve had to learn from my mistakes and keep practicing on the equisizer. It took a while to click but it’s coming much more naturally now.”
He also describes himself as a fitness fanatic.
“I used to do a lot of cycling, but now I go to the gym five days a week and have regular one on one personal training sessions at Peter O’Sullivan House and I’m a fan of the hydro pool, which has a treadmill in the water to exercise on.”
Mason is sponsored by Nick Luck but has agreed to let Go Racing In Yorkshire follow him through the year, so that we can keep a track of his progress and what he is getting up to.
Expect to hear more, once the turf season gets going!.