At the time of writing, Harry Cobden is reigning National Hunt Champion Jockey, having clinched his maiden title when winning on Spring Gale, trained by Henry Daly, in a mares’ maiden hurdle at Chepstow on April 26, 2024. With his nearest rival, Sean Bowen, set to take just four rides at the final meeting of the season, the Bet365 Jump Finale Day at Sandown Park, the following day, Cobden could not be caught and took the championship, eventually finishing seven lengths ahead. In so doing, he became just the eighth jockey to win the championship since since John Francome and Peter Scudamore shared the title in 1981/82.
Born into a farming family in Lydford-on-Fosse, Somerset on November 1998, Cobden graduated from the pony racing racing circuit and incurred the wrath of his mother, Sarah, when missing his GCSE English examination to ride his first winner under Rules, El Mondo, saddled by Rachael Honeyball, née Green, in a hunters’ chase at Leicester on March 6, 2015. However, he had been associated with Paul Nicholls’ Ditcheat stable, one way or another, since his early teens and rode his first winner for the yard, Ulck Du Lin, in a three-runner handicap chase at Wincanton the following month.
After riding 30 winners in 2015/16, Cobden rode a further 63 in 2016/17, collecting the conditional jockeys’ title on his way to riding out his claim in February. Indeed, on November 12, 2016, he rode his first Grade 1 winner, Irving, trained by Nicholls, in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle. In 2018, Cobden was appointed stable jockey to Nicholls, but, on June 1 that year, fractured a vertbra in his neck when unseated by Mick Thonic in a handicap chase at Market Rasen, which kept him on the sidelines for four months. Nevertheless, in an interrupted season, he still rode 109 winners, including Clan Des Obeaux in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, in 2018/19.
