A former jockey has won a place on the live shows for the X-Factor, as part of the boy band Union J.

Headline grabbing

During his four years as apprentice to champion trainer Sir Michael Stoute, Jamie Hamblett rode twenty-three winners and even rode for the Queen. He then quit the racecourse in 2009 to pursue a career as an actor/singer/model, although he still rode out for prolific trainer John Gosden every morning.

After impressing all the judges in their first audition, it didn’t look like Jamie and his bandmates Jaymi Hensley and Josh Cuthbert would make it onto the show, as they were kicked out after bootcamp. However, when another band dropped out they were called in last minute.

Grouped together

In a typical headline-grabbing move, the judges added another singer into the mix and the band was rebranded as Union J. Group mentor Louis Walsh then picked them for the live shows and Jamie made the move from his home in Newmarket to London.

Union J has already amassed 130,000 followers on Twitter in less than a week, and are being touted by some as the next big boy band.