Tag Archive for: Jockeys Championship

Champion jockey Cobden salutes Nicholls’ contribution to title victory

/in /by

Harry Cobden has hailed the influence of Paul Nicholls’ Ditcheat operation after fulfilling a childhood dream and becoming champion jockey.

Cobden held off his one-time stable comrade and friend Sean Bowen in a good-spirited title battle that went right down to the final days of the season.

The Ditcheat number one sealed the title with a double at Chepstow on Friday evening which took him seven winners clear of Bowen, who had four rides booked on the final day.

Harry Cobden (left) gets his trophy off AP McCoy
Harry Cobden (left) gets his trophy off AP McCoy (John Walton/PA)

“It’s a childhood dream and something I’ve always wanted to achieve and I’m delighted,” said Cobden.

“You can’t do this without a big trainer behind you and when you have a powerful yard with 140 horses, it makes things a lot easier.

“He’s got very strong owners and a good team, right the way from Clifford Baker to the girls who come in and ride out in the mornings, they are all an integral part of the team and I couldn’t do it without any of them.

“It’s not ideal and slightly disappointing that Paul hasn’t won (the trainers’ championship) but we have perhaps missed a few of our good horses this year and it would have been a good party if we could have both done it.”

Harry Cobden has thrived in the saddle this term
Harry Cobden has thrived in the saddle this term (Mike Egerton/PA)

At Christmas it looked as though Bowen would be crowned champion as he held a hefty lead, but that all changed after the 26-year-old suffered an injury on Boxing Day which kept him on the sidelines until early February.

Cobden took full advantage of Bowen’s absence, erasing the majority of the healthy advantage the Welshman had built up, with the duo then pushing themselves to the limits in the closing months of the campaign.

However, Cobden admits a title charge had not really crossed his mind until that defining Boxing Day moment, when he realised he had the right man behind him in Nicholls to give a championship tilt a good go.

“I was so far behind and Sean looked to have it in the bag and unfortunately Sean got injured and it levelled the table a bit,” continued Cobden.

“I’ve never had a cross word with Sean in seven years of sitting next to him and obviously we’re both going for the same thing, but it wasn’t until the first week in January that I thought I had a realistic chance.

“When he came back we were nil-nil and I had a really good spell through February and March was pretty good. There has been no tension between us at all and it’s been really good fun and something I’ve really enjoyed.

“We’re sat right next to each other and it’s been like that since time has begun really. We’re a similar age and we started a similar time.

“We’ve both ridden a lot more winners than ever before and ridden for a lot more people than we ever have done, but I just thought if he hit a little flat spot and Paul’s horses got into a gear, I could give him a run for his money.”

Harry Cobden tasted Cheltenham Festival success aboard Monmiral
Harry Cobden tasted Cheltenham Festival success aboard Monmiral (Adam Davy/PA)

Cobden also reserved special praise for his agent Sam Stronge, who has been a vital cog in his championship victory.

The 25-year-old has taken more rides than any previous year he has held a licence and he credits Stronge with enabling him to form vital connections with new trainers and owners in the closing months of the campaign.

He said: “It’s been an amazing year and I think previously the most rides I had ever had was just short of 600, whereas this season I’ve had over 720 rides and Sam Stronge has been fantastic for my career and put me on lots of very good horses.

“I’ve made lots of new connections with owners and trainers and Sam has put a lot of effort and work in and I couldn’t have done it without him.”

Harry Cobden and Paul Nicholls have formed a formidable combination
Harry Cobden and Paul Nicholls have formed a formidable combination (Steven Paston/PA)

Cobden’s boss Nicholls has made no secret of his desire to make his number one the first champion jockey based out of Ditcheat and feels this victory justifies the way he has embraced his hugely-pressurised position in recent years.

“It’s fantastic for the team and for Harry in particular, he’s been riding very well this year and he deserves it,” said Nicholls.

“He’s stayed injury free, ridden plenty of great winners for us and gone out and picked up plenty of spare rides, so it’s good he has won this for the team.

“He’s improved enormously with experience and he’s still a relatively young jockey and he’s only going to improve again with more experience. Experience in sport is a massive thing and he’s a complete jockey now who rides extremely well.

“He’s one of the best out there and there’s some good lads out there, but he’s one of the best and he’s come on well the last few years.

“There’s been lots of great days this year, a couple of rides he’s given Ginny’s Destiny when he’s won on him have been brilliant, but he’s been consistent all the way through. To be champion jockey there isn’t just one standout but lots of them and he’s been riding them very well this year.

“He’s great to work with and a good team player who everyone is fond of. I’ve never heard anyone have a cross word with him and I never have any owners saying they don’t want to use him, so he’s just the ultimate team player.”

Patrick Wadge, who is attached to Lucinda Russell’s yard, took the conditional riders’ title while JP McManus was the leading owner this term.

Champion jockey ambition still burns brightly for Marquand

/in /by

Uphill be damned. He knows it will be a mountainous task, possibly harder even than last year.

Yet Tom Marquand confesses he will relish the challenge.

Oisin Murphy, who was deposed by William Buick as champion jockey last term – a title he held for three successive seasons before that – returns next month following a 14-month ban.

Buick, who went so close the year before and arguably should have been top dog, has now gnawed that tasty bone and is salivating for another.

But that combination of great physical strength and a highly developed will to win, which has become his hallmark, ensures genial young pup Marquand will again be in the argument. It can only be a matter of time. So why not this year?

“Champion jockey has to be in the back of your mind,” said the 24-year-old, who has partnered over 100 winners in each of his last five years, including a whopping 176 turf and all-weather tally in 2021.

Last year the accent was more on quality. He rode three Group One winners and finished third in the title race, level with his wife Hollie Doyle on 91 wins having ridden more horses, and enjoyed a total of 127 victories overall.

For clarity, the Flat Jockeys’ Championship has operated on a reduced timescale since 2015 –  and spans just 24 weeks from the start of the Guineas Meeting at Newmarket to British Champions Day at Ascot.

Changing the narrative from a 32-week window at the start of the turf season, on Lincoln Handicap Day, to the end on November Handicap Day, has confused die-hard traditional ‘turfistes’.

The change was made to make it potentially enticing to top jockeys, some of whom are simply not interested in chasing low-grade winners at far-flung places at the start and end of the season.

Marquand is different. Refreshingly bereft of aloofness, he is more than happy to face an icy midwinter blast and ride 0-60-rated performers at all-weather tracks if it means he quenches his thirst for winners.

If comparisons can be such a thing, then he is Flat racing’s equivalent of Richard Johnson. Rarely in this demanding sport have there been two more likeable, humble, honest and thoroughly wonderful exponents of the art of jockeyship.

Johnson, of course, was a supremely talented jump jockey, the finest of horseman cursed to have been the contemporary of the most relentless and gifted practitioner in the sport’s history.

Marquand hopes he will not have the misfortune to be condemned to the Buick or Murphy era, as Johnson was with AP McCoy.

“Once you are riding that amount of winners per year or per season, champion jockey is something that you are always going to want to try to go down with when you are done,” added Marquand.

Champion jockey William Buick has Marquand's respect
Champion jockey William Buick has Marquand’s respect (John Walton/PA)

“So definitely champion jockey is something I’d like to do. It will be hard, but Will, to be honest, was insane last year.

“It was incredible what he did. He literally gapped us straight away.

“Before that, in the previous two years, I was in the hunt until mid-August and then they stretched away. I was always within 10 or 15 winners, but last year it was game over early.”

The odds are against it, this season at least. Sky Bet offer 14-1 for Marquand, who was champion apprentice in 2015, to take the title.

He has the utmost respect for the 1-2 favourite, however, insisting 34-year-old Buick will be tough to stop as he goes for his second crown.

“To be fair to Will, he is Godolphin’s stable jockey – he doesn’t need to do it (go everywhere and ride everything). But it is something he wants to do and he has just shown he can drop his head and run, and do everything right,” added the Classic-winning rider.

Sea La Rosa provided Marquand with one of his three top-class victories last year
Sea La Rosa provided Marquand with one of his three top-class victories last year (Steven Paston/PA)

“Take a kid like (apprentice) Billy Loughnane, who is just starting out. You just go, ‘This is William Buick. This is what he does’, and he is never going to see anything that he shouldn’t do. He sets the example.”

Marquand admits he gets on well with the Norwegian-born rider, yet treats him with a due deference accorded to senior jockeys.

“I probably didn’t have too much to do with Will until a couple of years ago when we started travelling a bit, going to Hong Kong and stuff. He is probably that generation above me a little bit. You’ve got him, James Doyle, that crowd,” said Marquand.

“There are now two rows below me already – and I’m still only 24. You have Billy as one of the youngest ones, then you have Benoit (de la Sayette) and Harry Davies just below. It moves on quick.

Wolverhampton Races – Thursday 19th January 2023
Apprentice Billy Loughnane (right) has good examples to follow (Simon Marper/PA)

“But Will has always been that bracket above. It is a generational thing, even though in racing there are many generations within the weighing room.”

Disarmingly grounded, still conveying a sheen of wonderment at his good fortune to be in high demand, while enjoying plum rides for William Haggas, Roger Varian and other top yards, Marquand is fully aware of the grind and high standards required to reach his goal. Buick sets an increasingly high bar.

“Everybody in the weighing room has tremendous respect for Will,” Marquand added.

“I am one of the first ones to want to beat him, but you just commend people for their hard work when they do it that way.”