11th March 2009 - SECOND LAST - CHAMPION CHASE - Brough Scott

SECOND LAST - CHAMPION CHASE

To jump is simple. It’s what chasers are trained and bred for. To jump at speed is more difficult. To jump the second last in the Champion Chase as if it was nothing more than a schooling hurdle takes more than talent. It is called class. Master Minded has class in every line.

Even when others get their lines so crossed that some terrible knot has tightened in the brain. That’s what had happened to Marodima at the start and when he messed things up by haring off out of control for the second time, a lesser champion than Master Minded might have blown up with him. As it was he towed Ruby Walsh almost to the first fence before stopping, but when the race for real began he immediately dropped into that long floating stride and swept effortlessly over the first fence as if nothing had happened.

By the time they thundered past us on their way to the third there was no mistaking the raw pace at which this most demanding of all two mile races is run. After missing the break Marodima had legged it to the front at the most headlong and birch-busting of gallops with an eleven strong pack coursing in still controlled pursuit. None so controlled as Ruby Walsh and Master Minded.

Stillness is Ruby’s signature; the body balanced around and above the horse, the hand silent on the rein, the instep poised in the stirrup. Up and around the turn in front of the stands, winging down the hill and over the fourth fence and the water, and then remaining still and unhurried even when Master Minded was uncharacteristically cautious at the first open ditch. Ahead of him Briareus took over from the madcap Marodima with Petit Robin ready to attack once they turned back for home. If there was pressure on Walsh it did not show. “He could,” as Hugh McIlvanney so memorably wrote of Lester Piggott, “have played solitaire in a whirlwind.”

It was a whirlwind pace that Briareus and Petit Robin now tried to serve up to the favourite. But Ruby had been here before, to be exact 40 minutes before. That time it had been Carruthers and Mattie Batchelor going for gold (and missing bronze) as Walsh and Cooldine eased up outside him. Carruthers catastrophic blunder at the third last had allowed Cooldine to coast down and past us with his race already won. Coming to the second last in the Champion, Petit Robin was still a contender but outside him on Master Minded stillness was turning to deadliness.

That’s what happens when Walsh turns the screw. While the great McCoy clamps and drives, Ruby just presses a bit harder and deeper. Master Minded met the fence on stride and the leap was not extravagant but had a beautiful, flowing efficiency about it. To say that Master Minded was coasting is to misunderstand the huge adrenalin rush of energy that a horse like him is giving at full gallop. Master Minded and Walsh were nearly at top pace yet still made it easy. That’s the definition of a champion in any sport.

The second last on the Old Course at Cheltenham is one of racing’s greatest challenges. You pour off the top of the hill, hurtle over the third last and then hammer at four and a half foot of birch with Cheltenham glory beckoning round the bend. At this fence far, far less dreams are made than broken. But just occasionally you will get a big tall thoroughbred and a coiled, calm jockey soar in and over as if there were a song in their heart. That was what Ruby Walsh and Master Minded did yesterday. That was the wonder of it.