For the past two years anybody who has asked Harry Cobden, Paul Nicholls’s stable jockey, which horse in the yard he was most looking forward to partnering, the answer has always been the same: Bravemansgame. But when declarations were made for the Grade 1 Betfair Chase at Haydock last weekend, the rider’s name attached to King George winner Bravemansgame was that of Daryl Jacob. Jacob was thus in line for the jockey’s share of the £112,000 prize. Cobden, said Nicholls, would be riding the yard’s entrants at Ascot instead. Although it was rapidly announced that Cobden was happy about the arrangement, a few eyebrows were raised and tails swished, particularly because Nicholls had been openly critical of one of his stable jockey’s rides at Cheltenham the previous weekend, albeit before Cobden’s last fence recovery in a victory on Stage Star showcased his remarkable talents.

‘No other jockey would have got him round: that’s why he’s here’

Paul, of course, has never been one to hide his feelings, but he is a man who moves on immediately and if Cobden was even a tiny bit miffed over his Saturday posting it never transmitted itself to the horses he rode, all four of them winners. In the novice hurdle, despite his mount Farnoge carrying a penalty, Cobden led all the way and went clear between the last two on what is obviously a smart performer.

In the Grade 2 Nirvana Spa Chase everything changed at the start when Shishkin, who had trounced Cobden’s mount by 16 lengths when the two last met at Ascot, planted his feet at the start and refused to move. Pic D’Orhy thus only had two long-priced outsiders left to beat but didn’t like the ground or jump as well as he can. He won all right but needed coaxing from the saddle. Nicholls’s assistant Charlie Davies declared afterwards, with feeling: ‘No other jockey would have got him round: that’s why he’s here.’ Noting ‘a win is a win is a win’, Pic D’Orhy’s owner, Johnny de la Hey, admitted things had been ‘a bit complicated’. He explained that stable plans for the season to keep Bravemansgame and Pic D’Orhy apart in their runs so that Cobden could ride both had gone awry because of changing ground and fixtures. It had ‘kind of made sense’ for the stable jockey to be at Ascot with ‘two massively live chances for me’.

Another victory for the owner and a by now beaming Cobden followed when Blueking D’Oroux became a rare four-year-old winner of the Coral Hurdle with a well-timed run from the last. He could become a serious three-miler. If the cake still needed any icing that was provided when Cobden won the bumper too for the Nicholls yard on Regent’s Stroll and the biggest irony of all was that up at Haydock in the Betfair Chase Bravemansgame was beaten on merit by Venetia Williams’s Royal Pagaille. When you tot up his four winning prizes at Ascot, Cobden was in for a share of £115,876. Second prize in the Betfair was worth £42,000. And he was four winners closer to Sean Bowen in the jockeys’ championship

It was disappointing for racegoers that only one of the seven races at Ascot produced the minimum field of eight required for each-way betting on three places, but there were plenty of thrilling finishes. Topweight Boothill bravely made it three victories from three runs at Ascot in the Hurst Park Handicap Chase. In the UK Mares’ Handicap Hurdle, amateur Charlie Case, son of trainer Ben, conjured a great finish from Midnightreflection to chin Harry Fry’s Whitehotchilifilli on the line for only his third victory under Rules. In the opening Novices’ Limited Handicap, trainer Kim Bailey’s Chianti Classico gave away lumps of weight on ground he loathed to score by a narrow margin. It was his trainer’s fifth win from his latest six runners and a Bailey winner is always a good excuse to read his highly individual trainer’s blog.

Last week’s effort noted the absence of Mrs B on a girl’s trip to Vienna with the reflection: ‘Marriage is just a nice word for adopting a fully grown man who cannot take care of himself’ and recalled a coin-op laundry operation adjacent to a church with the advertisement: ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness.’ With all the protocol problems the task of being Ascot chairman and His Majesty’s Representative may not always leave time for sheer enjoyment of the racing so it was good that Chianti Classico’s part-owner was the equable Sir Francis Brooke, holder of those titles. Francis was so buzzing with the victory that he couldn’t remember, when I asked him, the names of his other two horses in training. Winners get us all like that and having backed Royal Pagaille at 17-2 when he started at 5-1 had me bouncing too.

It was his previous three victories in four Haydock runs which finally swayed me. But then Nicky Henderson ran Shishkin at Ascot because of his two great victories there against Pic D’Orhy previously and Energumene – and look what happened to him.