Harry Cobden and Cyrname undertake retrieval mission in Ascot Chase

The then teenager had been picked by Paul Nicholls to school the precocious horse at one of the top trainer’s satellite yards. It was, he said, like facing the “wall of death.”

“He was going round the schooling ring and he was almost out of control,” the jockey explained to The Yorkshire Post. “100mph, very tight. Not big fences, bigger than hurdles, and there’s me hanging on for my life.

“He was bolting round there. He was the boss. These days he’s a lot calmer. It’s all part of the education and, hopefully, he will run at the weekend.”

Such formative mornings certainly helped to prepare the courageous Cobden for his career as a top jump jockey and association with a hard taskmaster as renowned as the relentless Nicholls, the 11-time champion National Hunt trainer.

They also prepared Cobden for racecourse rides on Cyrname when a run of four successive wins at Ascot saw the once tearaway horse eclipse Altior as the country’s highest-rated steeplechaser.

But some have questioned the horse since Cyrname – a runaway winner of the 2019 Betfair Ascot Chase – suffered a heavy fall when beaten in the 2020 renewal of the two-and-a-half-mile Grade One event.

While Cobden, the proud son of beef farmers, and Cyrname were classy winners of Wetherby’s Bet365 Charlie Hall Chase at the end of October, a listless run behind stablemate Frodon in Kempton’s King George VI Chase leaves them on a retrieval mission in today’s Ascot Chase.

It is not lost on the confident Cobden that the biggest threat could come from the Nicholls-trained Master Tommytucker, who he rode to victory at Kempton just last month.

But it is a measure of his faith in the Johnny de la Hey-owned chaser that the 22-year-old believes he will be exceedingly lucky if he ever rides another horse as talented as Cyrname.

“If Cyrname puts his right foot forward, he will go very close. He is in good form at home. He has just tipped away from the King George,” reported Cobden, who was so determined to be a jockey that he skipped a GCSE exam so he could ride a winner.

“I schooled him earlier this week and he was in great form. We will ride him slightly more aggressively. We don’t necessarily have to make the running, but I don’t want an episode of Kempton in the King George last time.

“I wasn’t very happy with my position in the King George throughout the race. He was too far back and then I had to go wide throughout.

“He missed the fence down the back and that was the race over. I didn’t want to carry on for the sake of carrying on, so I pulled him up and saved him for another day.

“I had the perfect position down at the start, but Cyrname wasn’t keen to jump off for some reason. He was slowly away, jumped the first slowly and then I was sixth or seventh by the second fence.

“We couldn’t find anything wrong with him before or after. He has probably got to the stage where he is more relaxed and doesn’t tear off like he used to do, so I think from a jockey’s point of view, that changes the way I ride him.”

Arduous ground at Ascot holds no fears – Cobden says conditions were testing for the 2019 renewal when the vanquished included Ruth Jefferson’s admirably consistent Waiting Patiently.

“When he won the Betfair Ascot Chase two years ago, that was the best performance I have ever ridden on a horse on a racecourse,” said Cobden, who is an eloquent ambassador for Great British Racing.

“The way he jumped and travelled in that race. He beat the likes of Waiting Patiently and it was a phenomenal performance. I guess that is where he got his rating of 176.

“Cyrname has been the horse of a lifetime for me. I was lucky enough that he came along very early in my career. He has won a number of races during his career and hopefully he hasn’t won his last one yet.”

But the jockey, who is also due to ride former King George Chase winner Clan Des Obeaux in tomorrow’s rearranged Denman Chase at Newbury on this high-profile weekend, has still not forgotten his first encounter with Cyrname.

“He would go from a walk to flat out in a matter of seconds,” he added. “He was a bit unrideable. He is a completely different horse now. You can ride him at the front or the back of the string.

“I still remember the first time I ever schooled him at our small school in Highbridge and it was like a wall of death going round there. Now he is brilliant, jumps well and drops his head lovely. He is a pleasure to be part of.”

Harry Cobden means it.

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