Mike Cattermole on Anthony Van Dyck, Cyrname and the betting ring

ANTHONY VAN DYCK MAY NEED A RE-ASSESSMENT

Strange things happen to some of our European horses when they head to Australia. They’ve got to be pretty good already to make the flight but a few weeks Down Under can then be the making of them. They can become legends - just look at Red Cadeaux as an obvious example.

The most recent is Addeybb who hit the Group 1 jackpot twice in Australia last spring and hasn’t looked back since.

Prince Of Arran seems to grow a leg when he travels down there. He always performs and, having already placed twice in the Melbourne Cup, can now boast form figures in Australia of 3132124, all in top races and with his latest fine effort being posted in the Caulfield Cup behind local star Verry Elleegant.

Two places ahead of the Prince there, and making a highly satisfactory Aussie debut, was Anthony Van Dyck, winner of the 2019 Derby and regarded by yours truly at the time as a pretty ordinary winner of the Blue Riband.

True, he was a touch unlucky when third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf months later, and has twice beaten Stradivarius this term. But could he now, 17 months on, be heading to equine immortality if he lifts the Melbourne Cup next Tuesday morning?

Already his Derby form got a massive Aussie boost when the Epsom fifth, his former stablemate Sir Dragonet, went on to take the Cox Plate, Australia’s King George, at Moonee Valley on Saturday.

Can Anthony now stretch out to two miles? Of course he could. European horses can do the unexpected Down Under. Anything’s possible.

Imagine, AVD, the first Derby and Melbourne Cup winner! What an achievement.

I’ll be rooting for him.

HOW GOOD IS CYRNAME?

In an ideal world, Cyrname would be heading to Down Royal this Saturday to tackle the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Champion Chase.

Paul Nicholls would have been keen to start him off going right-handed and it would have told us a bit more about whether three miles really is for him. But it is far from an ideal world, of course, and travel complications mean that Cyrname stays at home.

The three-mile question can still be asked, but where? Nicholls will decide on Thursday whether to send Cyrname for the Bet365 Charlie Hall Chase at left-handed Wetherby – and wouldn’t that be fascinating? – or back to his beloved Ascot where he would have to shoulder top weight in the Sodexo Gold Cup Handicap Chase.

On paper, the Wetherby task looks easier. At Ascot, he would compete for a more valuable prize, to the tune of over £5,500, and attempt to defy his rating of 176 as the highest rated chaser in the land. That is one huge ask.

To put it into perspective, Well Chief defied an identical mark when winning the Victor Chandler Chase at Cheltenham in January, 2005 and Denman won off 174 when landing his second Hennessy in 2009.

Cyrname has been one of NH racing’s biggest draws since January 2019 when he notched up the first of his Ascot all-the-way blitzes to win off a mark of 150.

However, it was his trouncing of a high-class field in the Grade 1 Ascot Chase the following month that announced him as outstanding. It seemed sensational at the time and maybe still is. But was he flattered?

After watching Waiting Patiently in the closing stages – he was hanging and wasn’t striding out with any fluency – and then hearing Brian Hughes describing him as “not feeling right”, I am convinced he was, but who knows by how much?

But then Cyrname only goes and beats the hitherto unbeaten superstar Altior last November so that should have proved it beyond all doubt, shouldn’t it?

Apparently not, as we now hear that Altior maybe wasn’t himself. Poor Cyrname, what does he have to do?

First, though, he has to redeem his reputation which was somewhat tarnished after he was a well-beaten second in the King George and then took a heavy fall when struggling back at Ascot.

While the jury may be out about just how good Cyrname really is exactly, I do hope he comes back with a real bang this season, starting at either at Ascot or Wetherby. Rising nine, he ought to be approaching his peak.

BETTING RING DAYS LOOK NUMBERED

On my early visits as a young lad to the racecourse, I was struck by the atmosphere created by the betting ring. Daunted at first, I soon became quite used to it and expected and enjoyed it as part of the day’s experience.

This was why it was such a shock when I first went racing in France and Dubai, for example, where the betting jungle has no part to play at all. For me, a big part of the overall event was missing in such places.

You get to know a few on-course operators over time and come to admire and respect them - and often like them - as hard-working businessman who are only trying to make a living. They have to put in the hours of graft to try and keep ahead of it all, otherwise it will compromise any chances of making a profit.

I have felt for them not being able to have that opportunity since racing resumed behind close doors. When owners were allowed back in, I found myself looking on ruefully when I saw a solitary bookmaker down in the ring to service them.

Now the giants Ladbrokes and Coral have announced that they will be giving up all of their racecourse pitches and won’t have an on-course presence at all.

This really is a huge story with both companies having had a massive bearing at the track for around 100 years.

We had wondered how racing would look post-Covid. This may be one of the first clear signs of that and I think it is a sad day for racing and racecourses.

The game has changed so much in such a short space of time and GVC, parent company of the two bookmakers, confirmed that racecourse takings on their latest accounts were now “miniscule” compared to those from digital outlets and betting shops.

Has the ring got a future? Indeed, you do wonder what the 85 pitches in Britain and 21 in Ireland that belonged to Ladbrokes/Coral would be worth, but a deal has been struck already with all of them reportedly being sold to on-course bookmaker Sid Hooper.

Cleary Mr Hooper doesn’t think that all is lost, and good luck to him, but this is one hell of a blow for the ring to recover from.