Cobden chalks up landmark 1,000th British winner

Harry Cobden secured his 1,000th British winner after steering Indemnity to victory at Market Rasen on Tuesday.

Having moved onto the 999-winner mark last month, the 26-year-old has had to wait a while to reach the landmark figure, but appeared to have an excellent opportunity of doing so aboard Emma Lavelle’s five-year-old in Lincolnshire.

After winning his last two starts at Huntingdon in April and Warwick in May, Indemnity was the 5-4 favourite to complete his hat-trick on his return from his summer break and victory looked inevitable when he cruised into the slipstream of Bowmore between the final two flights.

It was harder work than had seemed likely on the run-in, but Indemnity did enough to prevail by a length and three-quarters.

Cobden told Racing TV: “To be honest it’s been a long couple of weeks as I was on 999 a few weeks ago, so I’ve had to wait a little bit but I’m delighted to do it.

“The big days early on in my career were unbelievable, a couple of Tophams on Ultragold were pretty special, a first Grade One on Irving, the likes of Clan Des Obeaux and Politologue and then Cyrname who was one of the best I’ve ridden.

“I’ve had an unbelievable 10 years really, but obviously you can’t do it without the owners, the trainers and the staff – there are so many to thank along the way.

“The majority of my winners have come for Paul Nicholls and his team at Ditcheat, so I’m very grateful for their support. Paul has given me some amazing days and thankfully we’re only halfway there.

“I wouldn’t be a jockey without my parents and Ron Hodges, who got me into pony racing. Ron treated me like a member of his family from when I started with him as a nine-year-old and fuelled my love to be a jockey.”

Cobden works on his farm in his spare time and said: “The racing pays for the farming!

“It just helps me when things aren’t going right, it helps you put things into perspective, but racing is the important thing in my life. I’m lucky in that respect.

“I just said to Sam Twiston-Davies ‘only 3,000 more to go’ and he said I’d probably be lucky to have another 3,000 rides and he’s probably right!”

On Indemnity he added: “He’s a marvellous little horse and I’m sure there’s more to come, it wouldn’t surprise me if he won a nice handicap somewhere.”

Cobden was champion jockey in 2023/24 and won his first Grade One on Irving in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle in 2016.

He joins an elite list of active National Hunt jockeys to have partnered over 1,000 winners, which includes Brian Hughes, Sam Twiston-Davies, Harry Skelton and current champion Sean Bowen.