Whoa baby – reliving the day five-year-old Master Minded won the Champion Chase

It's 11 years since . . .

Master Minded became the youngest winner of the Champion Chase

If there has ever been a case of a racegoer complaining their Cheltenham Festival visit didn’t constitute value for money, then it didn’t happen on March 13, 2008. This was the day when the gale-force winds that had forced the abandonment of the entire Wednesday programme came home to roost and the Thursday card swelled to a ten-race extravaganza as a matter of expediency.

A day at the festival is never less than thrilling, a ten-race day practically overwhelming, but when the highlight of the proceedings is a race as breathtaking as the Queen Mother Champion Chase win of Master Minded – well, it’s a wonder there were no human casualties from emotional exhaustion.