Robin set to teach Master a lesson

On March 17th, Paul Nicholls’ Master Minded will bid to land a hat-trick of Queen Mother Champion Chases at the Cheltenham Festival.

While he remains a warm favourite to achieve the feat, there are sound reasons for believing that the value lies elsewhere on the ante-post list.

It seems clear to the overwhelming majority of impartial observers that the form of Master Minded has declined since his second Festival success.

That’s not to say that he isn’t still a force to be reckoned with, quite the opposite. In fact, the French bred gelding is still the highest rated two mile chaser in Britain & Ireland, and by some way.

Now though might just be the time for a young pretender to wrest the crown from the champion and in Petit Robin, another French import, Nicky Henderson could have just the horse to do such a job.

Petit Robin put up a fine performance when landing Kempton’s Desert Orchid Chase over the Christmas period, beating Well Chief, a horse who had previously taken the scalp of Master Minded at Sandown.

Petit Robin still has something to find, but he seems to be on an upward curve and hails from a yard that will have him spot on for the task in hand at Cheltenham Race course.

He was beaten into third by just nine lengths in last season’s two mile championship and I’m fairly confident that Petit Robin, available at a tempting 10/1 with Ladbrokes, is going to give the champion most to think about, especially if he has a top Cheltenham jockey on board.