Master Minded - 2007 - 2008 Season

2008 Season

In 2007 he joined the powerful Ditcheat stable of Paul Nicholls to begin chasing. He was not a novice following his win in France so was thrown in at the deep end against seasoned campaigners. Nicholls found an easy opening for him at Exeter Racecourse in a 4 runner graduation Chase where Sam Thomas took the ride. He inexplicably made a serious error and unseated Sam Thomas.

Not perturbed Nicholls took him up a class to run at Sandown on 5 January 2008 in the Free £25 Bet partybets.com Handicap Chase at Sandown. He took on some real seasoned campaigners in this and taught them a lesson. After the race he was now starting to be taken seriously as a Cheltenham Festival horse and was surprisingly for such an inexperienced horse made 8-1 favourite for the RyanAir Chase and 25-1 for the Champion Chase.

He stepped up another step in his next run the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury (9 February 2008) which is a very important stepping stone to the Queen Mother Champion Chase where he beat a top class field including the defending champion Voy Por Ustedes. Now this recruit was starting to be taken seriously as a challenger for serious honours.

On 13 March 2008 as a five-year-old he became the youngest horse to win the prestigious Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival since the race was established in 1959. Ridden by Ruby Walsh, Master Minded comfortably defeated the previous year's winner, Voy Por Ustedes, by a margin of 19 lengths. This was an astonishing performance as he crushed his opposition in a style not seen before by most seasoned watchers. John Francome said that on that form he could have won any race in the Festival which was the highest compliment possible from the former Champion Jockey and described the horse as "Scary". Strangely his trainer in his early years Macaire had also previously trained both Runner Up Voy Por Ustedes and another of the 2008 Champion Chase runners, Twist Magic (sixth).

He was now highest rated Chaser in the world and had one more run at Aintree. He was beaten by Voy Por Ustedes at Aintree. The Racing Post describes this race for Master Minded like this "As much as Voy Por Ustedes relished the rapidly drying conditions, Master Minded intermittently looked uneasy, certainly not jumping or travelling with the zest he showed at Cheltenham. That might be as much to do with a change of tactics. He set off last and was put immediately on the back foot off the fast pace by getting in close to the first, possibly frightening himself, as he was careful over the second. He telegraphed his second-last boneshaker first time and was again ragged over the same set of fences down the back straight. He still moved up strongly around the home bend and there was everything to play for before it simply looked like he ran out of stamina, which is what connections reported. He was 12 lengths down halfway up the run-in before being eased to accentuate his beating. He remains the one to beat over 2m. It could also turn out that like another top 2m chaser from France, Edredon Bleu, he is happiest bowling along and putting his rivals under pressure. A return to those tactics could restore his air of invincibility."

He finished the 2007/2008 jumps season as the Highest Rated Chaser in the World. A remarkable rise to the top and leaving him with a lot to live up to in the next season.