I was just watching some videos on youtube of previous Queen Mother chases. And I was thinking it was such a shame what happend to Master Minded in the king george over a yr ago. He was obviously going to be the next future stable star after the Denman & Kauto era. He would is only going to be 10 this year and would have at least another year in him if not 2. Would he have won a gold cup, would he have won a king george or even won a G1 over in Ireland. He was a superstar over 2m and granted if racing he would be tackling the 3m with the likes of Long Run, Synchronized, Bobs Worth & his stable mate SC. He was properly unproven over 3m but looked to be going well until the incident. But how well and how far could he have gone. Same could be said for Spirit Son- could he have beaten the Hurricane?
Not sure about Master to be honest- he became a little unpredictable towards the end and his narrow victories over Somersby tend to read less well given the way Sizing Europe and Sprinter Sacre have dominated since. He won a 2 and a half at Aintree but to be honest if he was ever going to stay 3m it would be Kempton. Sadly we never found out after his bad error. He was a fantstic jumper though and was travelling well that day before the mistake. He formed one of the best doubles I can ever remember. Kauto Star amd Master Minded provided a 20/1 double when they stormed back at Haydock at Kempton reapectively. What a bleedin' price!
He was the benchmark over the past few years.On his day he was superb.But his performances were sporadic to say the least. But his reputation and excellence have been exceeded this year.The bar has been raised yet again by a horse we may never see the likes of again in our lifetime.
As you say toppy what he may have lacked in the stamina he was a fantastic jumper with only 1 F in his record and that was over in france before he joined the nicholls team.
He beat Somersby at ascot in the amlin chase but before that he came last out of a 3 runner field when sent off odds on fav but is shame we never got to see how good he actually was
Does anyone have a video of his champion chase win from 2008? I wasnt in to racing at that time and ive heard a lot of things about how good it was yet i cant seem to find a video of it online anywhere!
He put up 1 performance that looked to the naked eye unbelivable at the time, but he could never put up a similar effort again. Which makes me think that 2008 Champion Chase was just a freak race where everything underperformed. Sprinter Sacre atleast does it everytime he runs, which makes you genuinely believe he really is that good. I think MM was a very good 2 miler, but i dont think he was anything extra special. He probably would have faired well over 3 miles, i fancy he would have stayed, though we'll never know now
