Cobden leaves it late to get off the mark for the first time in Ireland

Harry Cobden belatedly rode his first ever winner in Ireland aboard Funiculi Funicula in the penultimate race at Cork on Sunday.

Having been announced as the new number one rider for owner JP McManus in Britain and Ireland from next season, Cobden will be making more frequent journeys across the Irish Sea in coming months and on Easter Monday will ride for his new boss in the Irish Grand National, partnering Colm Murphy’s Goraibhmaithagat.

The 2023/24 British champion jockey appeared to have an excellent chance of breaking his Irish duck at Cork with six booked rides for Willie Mullins – and while the first five were all beaten, including three at odds-on, he finally struck gold in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Beginners Chase.

Funiculi Funicula was an 8-11 favourite to break his duck over fences at he third attempt following placed efforts at Naas and Gowran Park during the winter and he knuckled down after the final fence to get the better of a protracted duel with Wingmen by three-quarters of a length.

Cobden said: “It has been a long day and I’ve had plenty of stick, so it was nice to get on the board! I’m delighted.

“When you ride six very short-priced horses you hope not to have to rely on the last one to get you on the board, but there were no hard-luck stories, they all ran well and I’ve had a great day. It was lovely to come and meet so many nice people.

“I was going out thinking ‘I hope this one wins!’. When you ride an 8-11 shot you just hope to steer them through the wings, but the horse was tough, it was a good race and I’m a happy man now.

“I’m looking forward to the Irish Grand National tomorrow and it is a great ride. He has been a progressive horse on his last couple of runs. I’ve not heard anything yet about the English National, but hopefully I’ll ride something in the race.”

Looking ahead to his new role with McManus, he added: “I’m very excited and looking forward to hopefully riding a few nice ones.

“He has obviously got a tremendous bunch of horses, but at the same time I’ll have lots of horses to ride in England and I’ve got keep those people that have been so loyal to me happy as well.

“I’m looking forward to the new challenge. I’ve obviously been with Paul Nicholls for pretty much my whole career, he’s been fantastic to me and his owners have been unbelievable well.

“We’re starting a new chapter, but I certainly won’t be forgetting the last one.”

Cobden must have thought it was not going to be his day after being beaten at short odds aboard Mino Des Mottes (4-7), Absurde (5-6) and Kimi De Mai (4-7) earlier on the card, while Larzac was fourth as the 9-2 joint-favourite for the handicap hurdle won by his stablemate Sainte Lucie, who was providing conditional jockey Charlie O’Dwyer with his first winner for Mullins.

In the feature BAR 1 Betting Chase Cobden partnered Classic Getaway, but he finished last of three behind Ray Hackett’s well-backed 4-5 market leader Nowwhatdoyouthink, who claimed the Grade Three prize by six and a half lengths under Liam Quinlan.

“It looked like it was all going so well until the second-last, but he missed it and I panicked a little,” said Hackett.

“The one big worry we had was that we might have had to make the running, but maybe he has grown up and could do that now. Classic Getaway had been there and done it whereas we were on an upward curve.

“He’ll go for the Grade One novice chase at Punchestown now – we’ll have to give him a crack at it.”