Best Mate gained entry to a select club yesterday, a club which now contains the names of just four horses.

They are the only chasers to have won the blue riband three times. Founding father of the club is the legendary Golden Miller, who won the Gold Cup five consecutive times from 1932 to 1936, though the race did not hold the status it now has and was more of an important trial for the Grand National.

Owned by the eccentric man-hater Dorothy Paget, Golden Miller was treated as an equine god in his day and remains the only horse to have won the Gold Cup and the National in the same year, a feat he achieved in 1934.

His Aintree victory came in record time, while carrying 12st 2lb in an era when the big fences took more jumping than today, so it is little wonder that the Miller is still regarded with such awe.

Golden Miller was trained by the young Eton-educated Basil Briscoe to his first four Gold Cup victories, but trainer and owner fell out after the 1935 National meeting and Briscoe went into decline, dying at the age of 48.

The second member of the treble club is Cottage Rake, who made Cheltenham his kingdom from 1948 to 1950 and who was the first of the champion racehorses to be handled by the greatest of all trainers, Vincent O'Brien.

Cottage Rake's fame now rests largely on his place in the O'Brien story, as the trainer went on to become the most successful in the history of British and Irish racing both over jumps and on the Flat.

In all his Cheltenham victories Cottage Rake was ridden by the immensely popular Aubrey Brabazon, and their exploits helped establish the welcome threat of the Irish challenge at the Festival meeting. 'The Brab' was a master tactician with a supreme touch on a horse, but his first Gold Cup victory on Cottage Rake was not exactly expected as the nine-year-old started at 10 to 1.

The exploit required a brandy in the bar to bolster confidence for jockey and trainer before the race, but everything went to plan and Cottage Rake won by a length and a half without being touched with the whip on the run-in. He proved a real champion, capturing a second Gold Cup, this time at odds-on. The final victory, by 10 lengths, was largely untroubled and was also at odds-on.

The third and most famous chaser to be inducted into the club was the mighty Arkle, who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup from 1964 to 1966 and was known to one and all as 'Himself', a nickname that told of the fact that he was (a) unique and (b) Irish. Arkle was owned by Anne, Duchess Of Westminster, who died last year, and was trained by Tom Dreaper at Kilsallaghan, Co Dublin. He was the greatest steeplechaser of all time and won 22 of his 26 chases, every time ridden by Pat Taaffe.

A ground-devouring galloper who swept all before him, Arkle ran in and won all the top staying handicaps despite conceding lumps of weight, and he was unbeatable in weight-for-age races like the Gold Cup. His first Cheltenham victory was his most notable, as it was the race in which he settled the argument over which horse was the champion steeplechaser, the other contender being England's hero, Mill House. Mill House had won the Gold Cup as a six-year-old the year before and was held in such high regard that many considered he would dominate the sport for years to come. It was his great misfortune that his career coincided with that of Arkle.

Who knows how many Gold Cups Arkle would have won had he not broken a bone in his foot during the King George VI Chase at Kempton in 1966, which brought about a rare defeat and required his early retirement.

This is the company Best Mate now keeps, and maybe there are more Gold Cup triumphs to come from Henrietta Knight's star. The Miller's record of five victories is still there to aim at, after all.