Are you Sean Bowen or Harry Cobden?

Could Harry Cobden v Sean Bowen become the new Ruby Walsh v AP McCoy?

By Ben Linfoot

Horse Racing

Wed January 14, 2026 · 8h ago

Ben Linfoot wonders if we’ll be debating Harry Cobden versus Sean Bowen in the same way as we do Ruby Walsh versus AP McCoy in 10 years’ time.

I was always a Ruby Walsh man.

We’ve all had the debate, haven’t we? Ruby Walsh versus AP McCoy. A tough choice but you pick your team and you stick to it.

On the one hand you had an iron man, a 20-time Champion Jockey who travelled the length and breadth of the country, every day, in the relentless pursuit of over 4,000 winners. He made moderate horses win races. His strength was his strength, both mental and physical.

On the other hand there was the man for the big occasion, who prioritised quality over quantity. A rare genius in the saddle, he combined nerve with his natural talent. An incredible judge of pace and with tactical acumen to match, he was a supreme horseman with a temperament that made him stand out even amongst an elite crowd in the championship races. He partnered some of the greats of the game.

While Walsh finished his career over 1500 winners behind McCoy, he was top jockey at the Cheltenham Festival 11 times, leading his old rival 59-31 in that particular currency.

Since then the weighing room debates have gone a bit stale, the changing of the guard after the retirements of two heavyweights taking time to establish themselves.

But it feels like the wheel has turned now. And after the announcement on Monday that Harry Cobden had taken the JP McManus job from next season onwards it seems to me that a rivalry might just have been reborn.

Harry Cobden: "I just hope I can do myself justice now"

Cobden, 27, versus Sean Bowen, 28. This is their time.

I say reborn, because we’ve already had a taste of Cobden v Bowen. In 2023-24 Cobden hung on from his resurgent rival, who missed six weeks at a crucial point in the campaign due to a knee injury, to seal that season’s title.

But since then it has been one-way traffic with Bowen in the driving seat. In 2024-25 Bowen steamrollered to his first title win with 180 winners, Cobden back in third with 116. This season Bowen is already on 172 winners, with Cobden in fifth on 69.

Numerically, Bowen is on an AP McCoy-like trajectory. 172 winners in mid-January is crazy good and he shares other traits with the 20-time champ, too. His winning mentality has been there ever since he cut his teeth on the pony racing circuit, he has more than the odd miracle ride up his sleeve and his willingness to travel anywhere to ride almost anything is clearly on a par with you know who.

Cobden is different. He has had 399 fewer rides than Bowen this season alone. Even accounting for their different perspectives and roles that’s a pretty staggering differential with no serious injuries involved.

Yet his swashbuckling style and propensity to be unfazed took him to the top job at Paul Nicholls’ and, during a period of transition at Ditcheat, Cobden has churned out 27 Grade 1 wins for his boss including two King Georges and three top-level races at the Cheltenham Festival.

Indeed, Cobden’s Festival record includes six winners all told, including on 33/1 chance Kilbricken Storm (his first) and 25/1 shot Monmiral, further evidence he can rise to the occasion on the big stage even when up against the might of the Irish.

And perhaps his relatively recent success for Irish behemoth Willie Mullins went some way to getting him the job as McManus’ number one.

After all, his first win for Mullins came aboard Scottish Grand National gamble Captain Cody at Ayr in April, a typical execution of ice-cool beauty on just his second ride for the yard, and at the end of that month he was four from six for the Closutton team.

If that was an audition for something bigger things couldn’t have gone much better for Cobden, and his style, rhythm, panache and temperament make him the closest thing to Ruby that McManus could get his hands on.

It’s a different approach for the biggest owner in the game after the McCoy years and it makes you wonder whether he ever considered going for Bowen, so much more in the mould of the 20-time champion who did so many great things in the McManus green and gold?

Who knows. We do know the upcoming Cheltenham Festival is a big one for both Cobden and Bowen.

Sean Bowen: Looking for his first Cheltenham Festival winner

It always is, of course, but Cobden will be hoping to bow out from the Nicholls job on a high with the likes of No Drama This End to call upon, while Bowen wants to tear the unwanted monkey of never having won at the Festival from his back.

Remarkably, for a jockey of his considerable talent, he is 0 from 52 at the Festival. Only six of those runners were sent off at single-figure prices, though, so it’s not the surprise you might think from the headline stat, but nevertheless he’ll want to break his duck sooner rather than later.

He’s been unlucky, too, as he was claimed by Olly Murphy for Resplendent Grey in the National Hunt Chase last season as usual ride Haiti Couleurs won the race, while he had a broken collarbone when another of his mounts for Rebecca Curtis, Lisnagar Oscar, won the Stayers’ Hurdle in 2020.

Festival wins will come for Bowen. But they might well come at a more regular rate for Cobden now he’ll be teaming up with the formidable McManus team. It looks the perfect job for him to get on the big stage with increased regularity.

It seems unlikely his new position will see him challenge Bowen for Champion Jockey honours, however. Not if Bowen can keep on delivering the kind of numbers and miracle rides he has done in the current campaign in any case.

And while this contrast in styles is very Walsh versus McCoy, both Cobden and Bowen have to keep on going for another 10 years and more, rolling with the punches, the injuries, fending off the new blood, to achieve the much-desired trait that is longevity - one thing on which you couldn’t separate McCoy and Walsh.

But to see Cobden in the green and gold next season will add a new dynamic to the UK weighing room, perhaps much needed in what might well become known as the Bowen era.

So, at this stage, are you Cobden or are you Bowen? Let the bar room debates commence.

For what it’s worth, like JP McManus, I’m a Harry Cobden man.

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Could Harry Cobden v Sean Bowen become the new Ruby Walsh v AP McCoy?

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