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Great to see the Chief back in the winners enclosure
Slightly disappointed R Power failed to take them along and stretch the field for a place or better, but hey!
Get the feeling there’s something lurking at a big price for the QM. Interesting that PN’s initial thoughts on MM when he first arrived at the yard was that he needs to go right-handed!
Paul Nicholls looked shell-shocked.
No wonder !
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Master Minded was ultimately disappointing – Mahogany Blaze has finished far too close for my liking – but he was conceding 10lbs to everything else in the race and still looked to be running free approaching the second last.
Maybe the Champion Chase isn’t as clear cut as we first imagined, but I have no doubts that Master Minded is significantly better than that.
Well, PN has always said MM is a difficult horse to train and there was a scare about him before last years Champion Chase; never got to the bottom of what that was all about. However, would have loved to have been at Cheltenham today to cheer home Well Chief; surely no yard better than the Pipes when it comes to horses like this [eg Cyfor Malta].
Absolutely delighted to see Well Chief back in the winning enclosure, he travelled great throughout and really deserved the victory. Hopefully he can have an injury free season and another crack at the Champion Chase.
The Tingle Creek Chase could be a real cracker with Well Chief, Master Minded & Kalahari King possibly facing each other.
"Arazi" wrote: Absolutely delighted to see Well Chief back in the winning enclosure, he travelled great throughout and really deserved the victory. Hopefully he can have an injury free season and another crack at the Champion Chase.
The Tingle Creek Chase could be a real cracker with Well Chief, Master Minded & Kalahari King possibly facing each other.
Don’t forget Big Zeb
Absolutely delighted to see Well Chief back in the winning enclosure, he travelled great throughout and really deserved the victory. Hopefully he can have an injury free season and another crack at the Champion Chase.
The Tingle Creek Chase could be a real cracker with Well Chief, Master Minded & Kalahari King possibly facing each other.
Don’t forget Big Zeb[/quote
I’m not sure whether Big Zeb will be coming over to run in the Tingle Creek, that’s why I didn’t mention him.
I don’t think the Tingle Creek would be the ideal race for the horse either as his dodgy jumping would be tested severly around Sandown.
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Come March all being equal Big Zeb and Possibly Kalahari King are the only possible danger to Master Minded IMO.
Today everything was in Well Chief favour and PN was no more shell shockeed than flying in the air. 10lbs is a massive amount of weight to be giving a class horse like Well Chief when he’s cherry ripe. Common sense should tell you David Pipe is going to have him spot on while PN has bigger fish to fry later in the season.
Great win by Well Chief but to start thinking QMCC at levels against a fit Master Minded is nuts.
Always interesting to read post-race analysis on these pages and this is no exception.
Many will be aware, judging by my general posts on Master Minded and, more recently, my opinion of him on the previous page, that I’ve never been particularly overwhelmed by him.
There’s no doubt that he’s a very good horse. To win a Champion Chase by 19L as a 5YO is an incredible feat, but with the exception of last years Tingle Creek, I’ve always considered him more than beatable.
His 19L demolition job was a freak performace. One that he will never reproduce and one that I will never witness again in my lifetime. It was very special and a privilege to have been there that day.
Since then, one can argue that he hasn’t beaten a great deal, both in quality and quantity.
He looked vulnerable against Big Zeb last season. A horse with immense talent, burdened, however, by his lack of natural talent over fences. Barring a last fence blunder that day, Master Minded would have suffered two consecutive defeats
I would say, in fact, that his most impressive performance came in last years Tingle Creek.
You could look at todays race in many different ways. He was trying to give 10lbs to a hugely talented individual in Well Chief, who locked horns with the best two mile chaser I’ve seen, Moscow Flyer.
He only went down by 4L, so it wasn’t a total disgrace, but, c’mon, be honest with yourself, how many of you still expected him to win convincingly?
Then, you can look at the proximity of 11YO Newmill and Mahogany Blaze, a horse Master Minded has beaten a total of 117L in four races.
It’s easy, therefore, to say that the horse had an ‘off-day’ and didn’t give his true running.
Why? He’s won first time out before and Paul Nicholls wasn’t exactly pessimistic about his chances. I agree with the opinion that he looked shell-shocked after the race. In fact, I’ve actually never seen him so lost for words and, dare I say, humbled.
Master Minded would have struggled today off level weights. I noticed after the race that Well Chief was far from exhausted, ears pricked, looking happy, and was better value for his 4L victory.
Taking into consideration all he’s been through and the fragile nature of the horse, that was arguably his Champion Chase. I’d be inclined to leave him alone and keep him fresh for March, but there’s little doubt that David Pipe, who has done a stellar job with the horse, will like to strike while the iron’s hot and go again in the Tingle Creek.
That will tell us a lot more. Was this a mere blip, or will Master Minded continue to look vulnerable?
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As I said previously, Bosranic, Master Minded raced keenly throughout the entire race and that’s something you simply don’t get away with on soft ground at Cheltenham, especially when, as Paul Nicholls suggested earlier in the week, he’d been left short of peak fitness. He obviously wasn’t trying to run away from Ruby completely, but keep an eye on how tightly he (Walsh) gripped the reins even after the second last.
I don’t think he enjoyed having Newmill and Well Chief head him on his inside before the turn either.
It was disappointing, of that there is little doubt, but he’s still shown enough to make me believe he’s the one to beat in March (assuming there are np physical issues – I can’t remember him showing such a marked tendency to jump right before).
Gret to see Well Chief winning again, a tribute to his connections, to I don’t think he is within a stone of his great contests with AZ and MF. The proximity of the 2nd and 4th put the value of the form in some doubt however
Bosranic said , "I agree with the opinion that he looked shell-shocked after the race. In fact, I’ve actually never seen him so lost for words and, dare I say, humbled."
I reiterate that remark. He looked almost dumbfounded and somewhat perplexed when questioned after the race. We can all hide behind words in an effort to cover up our true thoughts, but body language and facial expression can, and often does, tell a completely different story.
This was a way below par performance from the highest rated horse in the country. If I was the trainer, I’d be more than a little concerned – whether the horse needed the run or was conceding weight or not.
Master Minded looked ill at ease a long way out and I for one could see that the writing was on the wall at least three fences from home. The zest and power, as with Denman last season, just wasn’t there.
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I’m with those who think that Newmill and Mahogers hold the form of the race down a little. I’m sure he’ll improve, but it is being behind Mahogers that make MM’s run so disappointing.
Great to see Well Chief win. Definitely hats off to David Pipe. At 10 and fragile, this must surely be his last season? Because he runs so infrequently, we’re still not quite sure what he’s capable of. Be great to see him line up in the Champion. Hope he gets there!
The Nichols team were definatly shocked after the race. The whole team looked like they couldn’t believe the result. There was long chats and puzzled looks between Ruby, Nichols and clive smith. I’m sure they were more suprized by the manner in which he obvously tired and the aforemantioned hanging to the right.
Hard to ignore the body language of Paul Nicholls after the race, wasn’t it?
He can normally conjure up some sort of explanation when one of his disappoints, but on this occasion he didn’t even bother.
He could have pinned it down to a few things, but he was completely bewildered ( anymore adjectives?).
Still the one to beat at Sandown if back to his best, but Paul Nicholls will be worried by that.
If i hadn’t already backed Well Chief i would have done as soon as i saw them going to post.
Masterminded was dull in his coat and a bit warm whereas Well Chief looked a picture of health.
They’re both great horses but obviously the form can’t be taken literally as Masterminded hung and Mahogany Blaze was too close at the finish.
I can’t understand quite why PN was so shocked tbh.
As I said earlier, on QM form – where MM was supposedly brilliant in beating WC – he had no chance giving away 10lbs on soft around cheltenham. He was rightly and duly stuffed.
That’s how good the horse is IMO, and I wouldn’t hestitate to back WC off levels come march. Soft ground once more will be a bonus.
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