Another Aintree tilt for Any Second Now? Thyestes run may decide plans for popular veteran with retirement not ruled out

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Are we witnessing the gradual ending of a great career or is there a sensational last triumph still to be enjoyed? Now a 12-year-old, Any Second Now will be a different horse to the one who won the Kim Muir almost five years ago and his options are being narrowed by circumstance, rather than by any choices being made on his behalf, but he has been remarkably durable and the Front Runner is prepared to believe he's not quite done yet. 

The British handicapper certainly has a high opinion of him. When he was entered for Warwick's Classic Chase recently, the rating published next to his name was 159. That's the same mark as Corach Rambler and Datsalrightgino, much younger horses who've achieved recent successes in major handicaps. 

In Ireland, a more merciful assessor has dropped him to 148. Unsurprisingly, connections decided against sending him to Warwick and will instead run him in the Goffs Thyestes Chase from that much lower rating on Thursday. 

Still, chewing it over with Ted Walsh, it doesn't sound as though the Gowran Park race is seen as ideal for the old boy. "It'll probably be heavy and there's a lot of fair-ish horses," the trainer says. 

"The Thyestes is a hard race to win. I would like to have seen more from him at Navan [last month] to say he'd have a chance. But he's going to run and he seems in good form. 

"He pulled up in it three years ago on very heavy ground. Mark said he just couldn't handle it. Gowran can get very heavy and then he mightn't operate." 

That Navan run, his seasonal reappearance, wasn't great. In a Listed handicap won by Embittered, he finished seventh of 11, beaten 38 lengths. On Racing Post Ratings, it was his weakest performance in a race in which he's completed the course. 

But it was heavy ground and he was giving lumps of weight to the first six. He travelled well at times and there was a fence down the back when he made lengths in the air. It wasn't a run to despair over, by any means. 

Any Second Now: set to run in the Goffs Thyestes Chase on ThursdayCredit: Patrick McCann

This has always been Any Second Now's time of year. Of his seven wins, one was in January, two in February and three in March. Only his maiden hurdle win, back in 2016, was achieved before Christmas. 

Four of those wins came in Graded races at Naas, Navan and Fairyhouse, all of which would be open to him over the coming weeks. But Walsh doesn't sound enthused about the idea of going for them this time, particularly when I mention the Bobbyjo at Fairyhouse. 

"Willie has a good few horses that are higher rated than him to run in those races," he says, referring to jump racing's dominant trainer, Mr Mullins. "He has a few that are younger and better that he could run in those races." 

Any Second Now is the only non-Mullins horse to have won the Bobbyjo in the past eight years. 

So the Thyestes it will be and perhaps they'll get lucky because there doesn't seem to be much rain in the forecast for the Gowran area this week. It'll be a final opportunity for Any Second Now to be assessed by the British handicapper before weights are published for the Grand National. If his British rating of 159 were correct, Any Second Now ought to win handily from 148 on Thursday, but that's far from being the most likely outcome. 

"He should run well," Walsh says. "He's entitled to run. I'll be delighted if he was in the money. I'd be over the moon if he won. But it'll be another step to know whether we should persevere or pull the plug. 

"Whether he'll end up in the National, you've as good a guess as me. A lot will depend on how he runs in the Thyestes and maybe another run after it. I don't want to prosecute him, going round in handicaps if he's not up to it. 

"If he runs respectable, I'd persevere. If for some reason he doesn't, we mightn't go any further." 

That would be sad but Any Second Now has had a great career. The Front Runner tries out a line on Walsh which you have undoubtedly read here before, that he's one of the unluckiest Grand National horses there's ever been. 

Ted Walsh: "If he runs respectable, I'd persevere. If for some reason he doesn't, we mightn't go any further."Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

"Well, he's one of them," Walsh says, then laughs as he adds: "He's not as unlucky as Crisp ... or Devon Loch!" 

The 2020 National was his big chance. He was ahead of his rating, having won impressively after the weights were set. But Covid came along and the race was abandoned. 

A year later, he lost a lot of ground and momentum when a horse fell in front of him, then rallied to be third. In 2022, he was runner-up to handicap blot Noble Yeats, failing by two and a quarter lengths to give 12lb to the winner. 

He was never really going last year and pulled up at halfway. He'd been hampered by a faller at the second, which didn't cost him a great deal of ground but certainly might have affected his concentration. 

"Listen, there's a lot of horses in the National you could look at over the years and say, they were unlucky," Walsh adds. "I could name you half a dozen. 

"To replace him is the problem. He's won a lot of races, nearly €600,000 in prize-money. We've gone to Liverpool for three years with a good chance. He's a nice horse to have and hopefully we can have another one somewhere along the line." 

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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, the reigning Racing Writer of the Year, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.