Master well ahead of Champion

Owner Clive Smith reports hot favourite Master Minded to be in tip-top shape as he defends his crown in the Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham tomorrow.

The French-bred gelding looked set for a long reign as king of the two-milers when trouncing 2007 winner Voy Por Ustedes by 19 lengths 12 months ago at the tender age of five.

And he has continued in that vein this season with impressive victories in the Tingle Creek at Sandown and the Victor Chandler at Ascot by 10 and 16 lengths respectively.

"We saw him gallop last Saturday and he's fine," said Smith.

"It was brilliant when he won last year and he showed at Ascot that he hadn't lost his form. He's still only six so he's got all to play for."

Master Minded, trained by Paul Nicholls, is currently the top-rated chaser in Britain and is already being hailed as possibly the best two-miler of all time.

Should he be successful tomorrow, the talk will turn to trying to emulate Badsworth Boy (1983-85) who is the only horse ever to win the Champion Chase three times.

"Funnily enough we were just talking about Badsworth Boy over breakfast," Smith went on.

"I'll just be glad to see Master Minded hopefully win. It's a tremendous race and a very special one to win. Let's hope we can."

David Johnson admits the rest of the field are probably battling for second place in the Champion Chase, but he is just delighted to see his Well Chief back on the racecourse.

The David Pipe-trained gelding, winner of the 2004 Arkle Trophy and runner-up to Moscow Flyer in this race in 2005, has been plagued by injury problems throughout his career and has not raced for almost two years.

And with Master Minded a red-hot odds-on favourite for Wednesday's race, he couldn't have a much harder task on his return to action.

"He's been off the track a long time so obviously there's a big question mark but so far so good," said Johnson.

"He's schooled well, he seems to be showing a lot of his old sparkle and he's very, very well.

"We won't know until we get him back on the racecourse and you can't be sure that he's retained his ability as he's getting older but he deserves his chance and we'll see what happens.

"We are just keeping our fingers crossed. We are all running for second prize money really, but we can't stay away because of one horse.

"They all have to jump the fences and they've all get up the hill."