I’d say Master Minded is not invincible, actually. If the Master Minded who won the Champion Chase in 2008 shows up tomorrow, then Badsworth Boy himself wouldn’t beat him. The performance that he put in that day earned him the highest-rated-chaser-in-trained accolade at the time, and it was difficult to believe that he was only five.

I’m not sure we’ve seen that Master Minded since, however. We certainly didn’t see him at Aintree three weeks later, when he was beaten by Voy Por Ustedes long before the issue of his stamina for two and a half miles came into play, and I’m not sure we saw him in the Champion Chase last year, when he ran out a really impressive winner from Well Chief and Petit Robin. I’m not sure that last year’s Champion Chase was that rich a renewal, Briareus was bang there until he fell at the last, we have no evidence that Well Chief was or is as good as he once was – he was 10 years old that day after all – and Petit Robin is not thought good enough to even contest the Champion Chase this year, the Ryanair now his aim.Read the rest of this entry »

A child looks at the clock on the wall.  The big hand is pointing at 12, the little hand is pointing at four.

“Dad,” he says as he tugs at his father’s trouser-leg, “is it bedtime yet?”

“It isn’t, son,” says his father with a smile.  “Not for a while yet.”

The child wanders outside.  It’s cold and it’s dull, it’s getting dark, it must be bedtime soon.  He remembers last year, when he waited for ages, when he went down to his friend’s house at three o’clock played there for at least three hours and they told him it was four o’clock when he came home.  Read the rest of this entry »