In which year was Harry Cobden champion conditional jockey?

Born on Guy Fawkes Day, 1998 and educated at Sexey’s School in Bruton, Somerset, Harry Cobden reportedly forewent his GCSE English examination in favour of riding his first winner, El Mindo, trained by Rachael Green, in the Thrusters Hunters’ at Leicester on March 6, 2015. Indeed, he made a flying start to his career, riding two winners, including one for Paul Nicholls, from just three starts towards the end of the 2014/15 National Hunt season.

In his first full season as conditional jockey at Nicholls’ Manor Farm Stables in Ditcheat, Somerset, in 2015/16, Cobden rode 30 winners from 138 rides at a strike rate of 22%. The following season, 2016/17, he increased his seasonal tally to 63 winners, riding out his claim in early February and winning the conditional jockeys’ title, 24 winners ahead of his nearest rival, former champion amateur David Noonan. Cobden rode his first Grade 1 winner, Irving, trained by Nicholls, in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle in November, 2016.

Cobden made a seamless transition to the professional ranks, riding 76 winners in 2017/18 and, in May, 2018, still only 19, succeeded Sam Twiston-Davies as Nicholls’ stable jockey. Fast forward to the 2021/22 season and Cobden reached the career landmark of 500 winners of British soil when riding Vision Des Flos, trained by Colin Tizzard, to victory at Uttoxeter on September 21, 2021. He currently lies eleventh in the 2021 jumps jockeys’ championship with 25 winners, but has achieved that total from just 79 rides, at a strike rate of 32%.

 

 

Which year did Santa Claus win the Derby?

No, it’s not a fairy tale. In 1964, Santa Claus really did win the Derby. In fact, for his followers Christmas came early that year because he also won the Irish 2,000 Guineas and Irish Derby. The equine Santa Claus was bred in Warwickshire, but trained on the Curragh by Mick Rogers, son of his joint-owner, Mrs. Darby Rogers.

Having made a promising debut in the Anglesey Stakes, over six furlongs, at the Curragh – when ridden, at 5lb overweight, by stable jockey Willie Burke – in the autumn of 1963, Santa Claus subsequently trounced Chesham Stakes winner Mesopotamia by eight lengths in the National Stakes, over 7 furlongs, also at the Curragh. He was officially rated the best two-year-old in Ireland in 1963 and installed as ante-post favourite for the 1964 Derby.

Santa Claus reappeared in Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh, for which he was sent off even-money favourite, with Burke once again in the saddle. He won, easily, by the three lengths from Young Christopher, thereby strengthening his position at the head of the Derby market. At Epsom, the inexperienced Burke was ‘jocked off’ by reigning champion jockey Arthur ‘Scobie’ Breasley and, at 15/8, Santa Claus was sent off the shortest-priced favourite for seven years in what was, at the time, the most valuable race in British history.

The security surrounding Santa Claus was tight. He was flown in on a chartered flight from Dublin under heavy guard and whisked away to Kempton Park, where he was stabled overnight. Mick Rogers said, ‘I’m not taking any chances. There’s a bundle riding on this horse and I want him just right Wednesday [Derby Day]. There’s always the danger of dopers in cases like this.’

Having settled Santa Claus at the rear in the early stages, Breasley switched him to the outside of the field with half a mile and produced him to lead close home and win going away. At the line, he was a length ahead of his nearest pursuer, Indiana, with Dilettante II a further two lengths behind in third place. Reflecting on his first Derby winner after twelve previous unsuccessful attempts, 50-year-old Breasley said, ‘He [Santa Claus] came down the hill to the corner [Tattenham Corner] so well that I knew he would win.’ However, Breasley was criticised, in some quarters, for making heavy weather of winning and never rode Santa Claus again.

 

Is it true that the Derby was originally run over a mile?

The simple answer is yes, it is. The Derby Stakes was co-founded, as a sweepstakes race for three-year-old colts and fillies, by Edward Smith-Stanley, Twelfth Earl of Derby, and Sir Charles Bunbury, Chairman of the Jockey Club, in 1780. The official ‘Racing Calendar’ stated that, on May 4 that year, the inaugural Derby Stakes was run ‘over the last mile of the course’ at Epsom.

Until fairly recently, it was widely believed that the ‘last mile’ referred to a straight mile, extending beyond the current 5-furlong start on a chute coming off Tattenham Corner at the top of the home straight. However, according to official Derby historian Michael Church, the ‘last mile’ actually referred to the last mile of the so-called ‘Orbicular Course’, onto which the Derby was transferred when it was extended from mile to a mile and a half in 1784. Thus, the sweeping, downhill turn into Tattenham Corner did not become a feature of the Derby until four years after the inaugural running. Indeed, it was close to the position of the mile marker on the old Orbicular Course that Jockey Club Racecourses, which owns Epsom Downs, erected a plaque to commemorate the starting point of the inaugural Derby.

Are there standout King George VI Chase Winners?

The roll of honour for the King George VI Chase, which was inaugurated in 1937, reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of steeplechasing talent from Britain, Ireland and France since World War II. Consequently, unless you’re made of stone, rational, impartial comparison of winners from different generations is nigh on impossible. However, Timeform ratings are designed to allow exactly that, so – notwithstanding the fact that they’ve only been available since the early Sixties – they may be the best we can hope for.

Unsurprisingly, the ‘best’ King George VI Chase ever, according to Timeform, was Arkle, whose rating of 121 remains the highest awarded to any steeplechaser. Back in the days when the conditions of the King George VI Chase dictated that he conceded weight all ’round, Arkle won in 1965, trouncing Dormant by a distance and would have probably won again in 1966, but for fracturing the pedal bone in his off-fore during the race.

A direct contemporary of Arkle, by whom he was ultimately overshadowed, Mill House was hailed as the best steeplechaser since Golden Miller when running away with the Cheltenham Gold Cup, as a six-year-old, in 1963. He subsequently beat Arkle, who was receiving 5lb, in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury the following November and followed up in the King George VI Chase. His Timeform Annual Rating of 191 ranks him joint-second of winners of the Boxing Day spectacular during the Timeform era.

Mill House shares his position in the all-time list with the most successful horse in the history of the King George VI Chase, Kauto Star, who won five times between 2006 and 2011. The winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2007 and 2009, Kauto Star was, in the words of trainer Paul Nicholls, ‘once in a lifetime’. With apologies to Cottage Rake, who won the King George VI Chase in 1948, not to mention the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1948, 1949 and 1950, other contenders for the ‘best’ winners include Desert Orchid, Burrough Hill Lad and Long Run.

 

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