Spoilt for choice: how we ranked the best two-miler chasers of all time

How do you rank the top 50 chasers of all time? Easy – Master Minded number one because he's fabulous and I love him. Sadly that fairly transparent move would have quickly been picked up by our eagle-eyed team of writers long before any of our well-informed readers got the chance to see a list with a top 25 from 2001 onward and some 1920s chaser at 50.

So, with biases firmly brushed aside, the first step was to create a shortlist from which to compile the final 50. Thus began a search through historic lists of Champion Chase winners, Tingle Creek winners, Desert Orchid Chase winners (also two names for the list, obviously), Clarence House Chase winners – you get the idea. That didn’t guarantee a comprehensive collection however, so then there was some digging into the race results of those major races to see if there was anyone who had just missed out on a flagship event but deserved consideration.

After that there was still a chance someone had been overlooked, but an email to the Racing Post editorial team inviting them to add their suggestions helped cover any blind spots.