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We couldn't stand in Harry's way and we wish him well
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Plenty of young jockeys in the team but Sam Twiston-Davies could ride for us
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Death of Kalif Du Berlais was devastating, he had huge potential
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We couldn't stand in Harry's way and we wish him well
The news broke this week that Harry Cobden will be riding JP McManus' horses from May but first and foremost Harry was never retained by us, it's always been a gentleman's agreement which I've had with all the jockeys over the years.
He's been with us since he was 16 and I don't know how many people know this but his grandmother was a Barber (Paul Barber was the part-owner of Denman and other horses in the yard), so in effect he was part of the Barber team so it was always his destiny to ride for us and he's had 10 great years.
When an offer comes along like this it's too good to refuse. I've known about it for about a month and Harry and I have had several conversations, good conversations, and ultimately I couldn't stand in his way, it's a fantastic job and a great opportunity for him.
He will still come and ride out for us, he'll still ride for us when he can, but obviously he won't be available as much so I'll have to think of a few different things for next season.
I love giving the youngsters opportunities, which I have done over the years, and I've got some good young jockeys in the team, like Freddie Keighley, Freddie Gingell, Jay Tidball, but sometimes in those big Grade 1 races you need a Grade 1 jockey until those guys are ready. We have Lorcan Williams with us as well so he'll ride plenty.
I've been in a conversation with Sam Twiston-Davies and I'll have a meet up with him one day so it's possible that he could ride some for us also, especially on those big days. But we're not going to do anything in a hurry, we don't need to, Harry's going to ride for us for the rest of the season, I've got plenty of jockeys. I'll meet up with the owners, have a discussion and see how everyone feels, so we're under no pressure to do anything quickly.
I would just like to wish Harry all the best, as would all the team. He's not going to disappear from us, he'll ride many more winners for us in the future, but we all wish him well in his new job.
Death of Kalif Du Berlais was devastating
Saturday wasn't a great day for us with losing Kalif Du Berlais, it was very sad. He was potentially a very smart horse, he was travelling a lot better than he did at Exeter, he was jumping great and he sadly paid the price for his enthusiasm and boldness. It was just very unfortunate and he sadly broke his shoulder and I was left devastated.
You have to deal with things like this in this job, which doesn't make life easy, and that really upset me over the weekend. It takes you a good few days to get over it because he's one of those horses who is like your mate, we had great belief in him.
And for all the owners involved with him, Sasha who looked after him, Olive [Nicholls] rode him every day, it's just been a tough week for us all.
We know what can happen in this sport from time to time, and it's very sad when something like this does happen, to lose good horses like that is a big blow to us. We were lucky enough to win a Grade 1 with him, he was potentially a very smart horse, it's just a shame that we weren't able to show how good he might have been over the next few years. But we've got to look forward now.