QUEEN MOTHER CHAMPION CHASE:IF, AS is widely expected, Master Minded cruises to another victory for Ruby Walsh and Paul Nicholls in today's Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase, then spare a thought for a French trainer wondering about what might have been.
Guillaume Macaire is a metronomic producer of winners in France, and has the great good fortune to be based in a piece of God’s country near Bordeaux. But he wouldn’t be human if doesn’t look at the Day Two festival centrepiece and ponder the events of just two years ago.
Having already sold on the embryonic talents of Voy Por Ustedes and Azertyuiop, both Champion Chase winners themselves, Macaire was always going to be a target for British bloodstock agents eager to pick up the latest potential jumping superstar from France.
But in 2007 he believed he had his best prospect ever and became determined to hang on to him.
Offers were routinely turned down for the young Master Minded, but then owner Clive Smith collected a cool million as a bonus for Kauto Star’s Betfair Cup-King George-Gold Cup treble and decided to reinvest some of it.
Smith’s agent, Anthony Bromley, then spent six months attempting to prise the horse from Macaire, whose resolutely “non” response only weakened with an offer of €300,000 and the chance for one last hurrah at Auteuil.
Macaire suspected the horse was cheap even at that price, and to rub salt into the wound he didn’t even get to win with Master Minded’s final start in France. But it didn’t take long for his judgment to be vindicated in style.
Master Minded’s 19-length annihilation of Voy Por Ustedes here last year was a mind-boggling performance that propelled him to becoming the highest-rated chaser in these islands.
Not since Badsworth Boy won the first of his three Champion Chases 25 years earlier had the great race seen anything even remotely like it and, if anything, he has looked even more impressive in two starts this season.
“He’s the best I’ve trained and the best I will probably ever train,” is Nicholls’ straightforward summation.
Walsh is equally emphatic in his estimation of a horse that remains young enough to dominate the two-mile division for years to come if he stays healthy.
Those are normally big enough “ifs” even in the short term when dealing with steeplechasers, but Master Minded is exceptional enough to alter the rules.
Paddy Power certainly think so, having last month paid out on ante-post bets on the horse for today’s race.
Since the Power empire is built on getting it right a lot more often than getting it wrong, such a move doesn’t inspire hope in Master Minded’s opposition today.
Big Zeb looks the best of the Irish trio, while Well Chief’s presence harks back to the recent golden age of two-mile chasing when Moscow Flyer, Azertyuiop and Well Chief produced a couple of seasons of intense competition.
Master Minded, in contrast, promises to be a sole-show, and for those determined to have a bet on the race he is far too short to be a realistic option. Not even Istabraq in his pomp started at such short odds-on as Master Minded will today.
Those “betting without” will no doubt point to the failure of the last nine champions to retain their title here, and hopes are high for Petit Robin to run into a place.
But it will be a poor day in Cheltenham history when the need to bet outweighs the prospect of admiring a great champion at the peak of his powers. Just after 3.20 this afternoon comes an opportunity to watch such a champion. Just ask Monsieur Macaire.
