by I knew that 40 years ago the agricultural college would eventually lead to three years but I didn’t think it would help Harry Cobden, “jockey first, farmer second”, with a recent batch of cattle from Salisbury market. to resolve.
Heading into the Cheltenham Festival with a selection of horses to ride for boss Paul Nicholls, including Gold Cup “forgotten horse” Bravemansgame, Cobden has momentum in the showjumping title race, which he leads on him by 10 from John. Bowen.
The 25 cattle, which he will fatten up to be beef, arrived and weighed about the same as purebreds, 450-600kg (71-94st). He comments on the best ones, because of their size and conformation, which will fatten the best, he guesses that most of them are within 10kg in weight and says that despite the eco -zealots and the vegan brigade, whose experience has never been more in demand. for beef at this time of year. In what I see as a thin little runt, he sees the greatest potential for profit.
Each is weighed, vaccinated, wormed, carefully neutered and the hair cut along its back to prevent it from sweating. If he was sweating, Cobden, with the farmer in there and the eye of his stockman, would see notes of beans instead of steam evaporating.
I’m weighing and bleeding – I should, at least, be flea-free for a while – and he hands me his electric clippers to cut his hair.
Considering that he aims for practicality in the fattening process rather than achieving the best in the parade ring at Cheltenham, he takes too long, a hard look at the result, which I believe would help me, on work experience . base, breeze into a job with my local Turkish barber.
“I’m a bit OCD about this, I’m afraid,” he says, taking back the clippers. “That looks like a rat has gnawed on it.”
With one of the most high-pressure riding jobs in Britain – the only other jockey to go all out to become Nicholls’ first rider is Ruby Walsh – expanding the family farm’s beef cattle business with the help of prize money and is the perfect foil bank.
But, citing the “farmers’ code”, he is reluctant to give the number of cattle he is sending to the slaughterhouse. “A lorry load a week,” he says vaguely, but it seems to me that the farm is punching well above its weight due to its size.
It is ironic that Cobden, 25, took up racing mainly because the family farm of 200 acres and 350 acres of rented land at Lydford-on-Fosse in Somerset was never big enough to support him and his brother older James, to let. alone his mother and father hands.
But James was allergic to cows and Cobden’s young energy is driving more barn building and cattle turnover.
Because of his day job, no one relies on him for the usual tasks of feeding and making the bed, but on an increasingly rare day off he never rests; he will find something that has to be done.
“It’s probably an antidote to riding,” he agrees. “After racing I come back here and I always go to the farm at night. It will take your mind off a bad day if something is wrong. I take the dogs, walk around the cattle and take my mind off work.”
He also agrees that some of his predecessors found it difficult to ride Nicholls. “I can see why,” he says. “Paul Nicholls is a winner. Every race, whether it’s a Grade One seller or a Taunton, means a lot to him.
“One of my worst rollickings was one day at Stratford in the summer. I wasn’t very good at one. And he let me know.” But with six years behind them there is a certain amount of knowing what the other person is thinking.
“It’s much easier for me now,” he continues. “The most important thing is that I know how he likes his riding horses; handy with a little light. He does not want bad luck stories when you went the shortest way, there was no luck and you can not get out. He doesn’t deal with that very well at all. This is my sixth season there but the last few seasons have been much easier.
“On those big days it doesn’t bother me. We discuss things in the morning or the day before. He will ask what I think about a race and give his opinion on what I think. If he wants to ride a horse a certain way – yes, no problem. We have a pretty good relationship on the road.”
Cobden’s calm nature is also a positive in the relationship. “If I did something wrong in a race I might be a little bit frustrated for a few minutes but, really, that race is gone,” he says.
“You learn from it and try not to make the same mistake again. When you have a good job like mine you have good opportunities every weekend. Mess up one, you try to fix it 30 minutes later.”
With Cheltenham in his sights, he says it was never the rider’s ambition to win it although he is giving it a good shot and he will have no help from Nicholls, who despite 14 titles for trainers, who was never a “king-maker” of him. it comes to jockeys.
“I would rather win the Gold Cup,” says the rider whose diet is, naturally, based on red meat and, in stark contrast to the old days, well rather than not hydrated. “We were very selective but I had 440 trips last season and I’m already around 580 this season.
“The jockeys’ championship is gaining traction and people are posting [on social media] where are we going every day. It’s probably a bit more exciting. When a person is 30 clear there is nothing to talk about. But on October 6, when I was 49 behind, it did not look very realistic and then, unfortunately for John, he was injured for five weeks and we came back level. Not many people can say they are a champion jockey.”
If there’s one place Cobden is as comfortable as the weighing room, it’s in the cattle market or among the cows but, for now, racing is the number one priority in his life. “I’m in good b—– shape,” he says, “and I’m not going to throw that away. Farming can stay.”
