Harry Cobden ended his wait for the UK’s 1,000th winner milestone aboard Market Rasen’s Indemnity.

Cobden, a stable jockey for 14-time champion trainer Paul Nicholls, authoritatively guided Emma Lavelle’s charge home over the two-mile distance in Lincolnshire to end a rare horse racing defeat.

After winning his last two starts at Huntington in April and Warwick in May, Indemnity returned from the summer with a hat trick of 5-4, and victory looked inevitable when he cruised to the slipstream of Bowmore between the final two games.

Cobden told Racing TV: “It’s been a long few weeks to be honest, like I was on the 999 a few weeks ago, so I had to wait a while but I’m happy to do it.

“I’ve certainly had an incredible decade but obviously you wouldn’t be able to do it without the owners, trainers and staff – there’s a lot of people to thank along the way.

“Most of my winners have been brought in by Paul Nicholls and his team at Ditcheat, so I’m very grateful for their support. Paul has given me some great days and thankfully we’re only halfway there.”

Cobden added: “I would not have become a jockey without my parents and Ron Hodges, who got me into horse racing. From the time I started with him at the age of nine, Ron treated me like one of his family and inspired my love of being a jockey.”

The 26-year-old, who became a conditional jockey at the Nicholls Ditch base at the start of the 2015/2016 season, has been with the stable since the age of 13 and has quickly established himself as a real jockey.

Just over a year later he rode Owen to victory in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle in November 2016 to claim his first Grade 1 win. During that season, he recorded a record 63 wins, which was enough to win a conditional championship crown.

At this time, Cobden was widely regarded as one of Britain’s best young jockeys and he continued to be in top form during the 2017/18 season. Politologue had a hard-fought first win at the Cheltenham Festival when Kilbricken Storm rode a fine performance in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle to claim her maiden victory at Tingle Creek. Diego Du Charmil added another winner to the National Grand Festival a few weeks later when he took Grade 1 honors in the Maghull Novices’ Chase.

It was following these high-profile wins that the jockey was offered the top job alongside Paul Nicholls and Joe Tizzard, opting for the former trainer while continuing to ride for the latter. However, shortly after, Cobden suffered a fractured C2 vertebrae when parting ways with Mick Tonic at Markit Treson, and was ruled out for several months during the 2018/19 season.

Like all champions, he would bounce back in some style, winning the Ascot Chase on Cyrname before beginning his Charlo quadruple, first on Bravemansgame. The horse and jockey later became a formidable partnership, winning the Cato Star Novices’ Chase and the King George VI Chase in successive years.

Cobden took his Cheltenham Festival winner tally to five with successes such as Stay Away Fay, Stage Star and Monmiral, then overtaken his lead at the top after Somerset-born jockey Sean Bowen was injured and was crowned the 2024 champion jockey.

In his tenth year of riding under the rules, Cobden rode Caldwell Potter in the 2025 Golden Miller Novices’ Chase for his sixth win at the festival.

He joins an elite list of active National Hunt jockeys with over 1,000 winners including Brian Hughes, Sam Twiston-Davies, Harry Skelton and current champion Sean Bowen.