As compliments go, they don’t come much bigger.
Arguably the greatest National Hunt jockey of all time, Ruby Walsh mixed style and achievement like few before him in an era where a certain Sir AP McCoy was Champion Jockey on 20 consecutive occasions.
While Walsh couldn’t match McCoy when it came to numbers, for the most part, he more than matched him in that sphere at the Cheltenham Festival.
Festival currency is king in the jumps game and for McCoy’s 31 Cheltenham winners in the month of March, Walsh had a staggering and record-breaking 59. And for all that he rode for powerhouse stable after powerhouse stable thanks to his association with first Paul Nicholls and then Willie Mullins, Walsh at times swaggered around Prestbury Park like he was riding around his back garden in County Kildare.
Between 2003 and 2012 Walsh rode 21 Festival winners for Nicholls on some of the greats of the game. Kauto Star, Denman, Big Buck’s, Master Minded and Azertyuiop made up 11 of those 21 wins and while some were steering jobs – Master Minded’s first Champion Chase springs to mind – Walsh certainly earned his fee on several occasions, notably in the 2011 Stayers’ Hurdle on board the legendary Big Buck’s when dropping his whip halfway to the final flight.
It was a dream partnership, one that brought Nicholls so much success, and such context is necessary when digesting the master of Ditcheat’s assessment of his latest young stable jockey Harry Cobden.
“He’s not unlike Ruby, the way he rides.”
It’s not so much an eyebrow raiser, but a pursed lips and nod of the head moment; a confirmation of what other people were beginning to think.
In the last 12 months Cobden has doubled his Festival tally from two to four aboard Stage Star and Stay Away Fay, he’s launched himself into heavy favouritism for the Champion Jockey crown and he keeps on pulling out the kind of rides that send social media into a frenzy; Born Famous, Wrappedupinmay and Pic D’Orhy to name but a few.
But coming from 14-time Champion Trainer Nicholls, the Ruby thing means so much more.
“He’s as good a jump jockey as there is right now,” Nicholls continues. “He’s improving all the time, tactically, physically.
“One of his best rides was on Tahmuras last weekend, four out you’d give him no chance and he nearly got him up to win. He’s not a straightforward horse and he gave him an absolutely brilliant ride.
“Last year [having two Festival winners] it was good for the whole team for us to do that and especially for Harry. He’s done nothing but improve since then and he’s riding as well as anybody at the moment.
“He is like Ruby. He’s very laid back, has other interests in life. It’s a high pressure job for me, for the whole team and it’s like anything in sport, you’ve got to deal with pressure. Some people can and some people can’t.”
While the Ruby comparison with a Ditcheat stable jockey seemed inevitable at some stage, it seems telling that Nicholls has unleashed it two weeks before the Festival, given Walsh’s dominance at that meeting.
An extra layer of confidence won’t do Cobden any harm, for all that he hardly seems to be lacking in that department. After all, Nicholls couldn’t have given him a bigger boost than when he appointed him stable jockey at the age of 19 at a time when Sam Twiston-Davies was number one in the yard.
“Sam was good, he could deal with the pressure,” Nicholls said. “The only reason Sam moved on was because Harry was coming through the ranks.
“I had to make the decision at the time - 'do I lose Harry' - and Fergie [Sir Alex Ferguson] says to me ‘you have to make tough decisions’. Now if I hadn’t got Harry I would’ve looked stupid wouldn’t I?
“It was one of those tough decisions, but whenever I’ve been able to give Sam a winner since it has given me a lot of pleasure. Sam’s a very good jockey.
“Sometimes you get forced into making tough decisions. But Harry is the most stable jockey I’ve had since Ruby. With Ruby I had 14 or 15 years with him here and we got on great.
“Harry’s 24 and Ruby was probably at his best in the later stages of his career.”
Nicholls is clearly anticipating the prospect of more to come.
In the immediate future that means a Cheltenham winner or two – Ginny’s Destiny, Stay Away Fay, Stage Star, Bravemansgame and Captain Teague the leading players for Cobden-Nicholls at the big show in just over a week’s time, while the season-long championships, as ever, are on Nicholls’ mind, too.
He rattles off his advantage in the trainer’s championship virtually to the nearest pound, in a season he could/should draw level with 15-time champion Martin Pipe. But, fair play to Nicholls, this conversation is about Cobden, and he quickly returns to the hot topic at hand.
“If Harry could be Champion Jockey this year and ride a few Cheltenham winners that would be brilliant,” Nicholls says.
“There’s a lot to play for in the jockeys’ championship, April could be the key month. Sean Bowen’s going to battle right to the end and Olly Murphy will probably have loads of horses for the better ground in April, Gordon [Elliott] might send them over to Perth.
“We won’t rest on our laurels. I’ve loads to run in April, we’ve plenty waiting for better ground I’ve kept so many back. We’ll do our best to make him Champion Jockey.
“I would get a lot of pleasure if Harry was champion. To have a Champion Jockey attached to the yard would be awesome. He’s worked so hard this year he deserves it.”
A few Cheltenham winners would go some way to seeing Cobden mixing style with achievement, not unlike you know who. And while he has a long way to go to get anywhere near Walsh’s achievements in the game, Nicholls’ compliment shows he’s very much on the right path.
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