Master Minded, jump racing’s best-known convalescent, heads the list of 24 entries for the Grade One Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

Since the race’s inception in 1959 there have been 10 dual winners – Fortria (1960 and 1961), Drinny’s Double (1967 and 1968), Royal Relief (1972 and 1974), Skymas (1976 and 1977), Hilly Way (1978 and 1979), Pearlyman (1987 and 1988), Barnbrook Again (1989 and 1990), Viking Flagship (1994 and 1995), Moscow Flyer (2003 and 2005) and Master Minded (2008 and 2009).

However, only Badsworth Boy has won the race three times and plenty of those previous dual winners failed when they were taken to the well for a third time. However, the biggest question would appear to be whether Master Minded will be fit enough to defend his title rather than if any other horse is capable of defeating on the track, although that has not dissuaded Henry de Bromhead from giving smart novice chaser Sizing Europe an entry.

His third place at Cheltenham in November, after which a stress fracture to a rib was discovered, was Master Minded’s first defeat over the minimum distance since he arrived in Paul Nicholls’s yard from France and he has at least 5lbs, according to official BHA ratings, to spare on any of his potential rivals, the closest of whom happens to be stable companion Twist Magic.

Nicholls has said that Twist Magic is the best around – bar Master Minded – and he proved as much when he won the Grade One Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown Park last month which showed the best of a horse who has been known to throw in the odd inexplicably bad run. “I think that’s his very best performance,” Nicholls said afterwards. “I don’t know why, he’s probably better this year than he’s ever been. He looked awesome today.”

Master Minded looked awesome when he beat Voy Por Ustedes by 18 lengths in his first Champion Chase victory two seasons ago. That appeared to mark a changing of the guard in the two-mile division – Voy Por Ustedes having won the previous year’s race –with Alan King looking to move Voy Por Ustedes up in distance. The move has brought mixed success with Grade One victories over two-and-a-half miles at Aintree and Ascot but three miles appeared to be beyond him – well, that and Kauto Star – when he finished third in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park last season.
It was jumping rather than stamina that did for his when Voy Por Ustedes ran in the Ryanair Chase at last year’s Festival, in which he finished second Imperial Commander when the odds-on favourite.

Voy Por Ustedes was only sixth on his latest, another attempt at three miles in the Grade One Lexus Chase at Leopardstown two weeks ago and has yet to make any decisions about the Festival: “Voy Por Ustedes came back A-one from his run in Ireland and in all likelihood will go to the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury next month,” he said. “We’ll have a look at our options based on what he does there.

“We’ve given him entries in both the Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Ryanair Chase, so at this stage he could go for either race.”

Also among the 43 entries for the Ryanair Chase is Barbers Shop, third in this season’s King George, and Albertas Run, the 2008 RSA Chase winner but it is yet another Nicholls runner, Poquelin, who is likely to head the markets after his course-and-distance in the boylesports.com Gold Cup last month.

Paul Wheeler