MY THOUGHTS ON BEST MATE.

​On my study wall there are two photographs of Best Mate. There is only one joint photograph of Denman and Kauto Star, the one where Denman looks to be bullying Kauto. The number of photographs, though, does not reflect my view of their abilities as racehorses. To my mind Denman and Kauto Star were way more accomplished steeplechasers than Best Mate. The disparity is that my other half bought the two photographs of Best Mate as a present and not being able to decide which was the better photograph decided to purchase both. She thought Best Mate to be beautiful, as indeed he was, and I only wish, as he deserved, fate had treated him with more respect.
Racehorses are very much like beautiful women. You can admire them all from afar but your heart usually only aches for one woman, or horse, above all others. For me it is Denman, though I concede that his stable-mate deserves the honour of being the best steeplechaser since Arkle. I do not believe Best Mate is in the same ball park as Ditcheat’s two greatest chasers.
Best Mate was brilliantly trained and to win three Cheltenham Gold Cups is an achievements that should never be underestimated. But 3, as John Randall would say, is a number, a quantity; it does not signify quality, though in Best Mate’s case no one should ever say he lacked quality. He was a magnificent racehorse, I concede him that. But he isn’t, in my estimation, one of the top twenty National Hunt horses of all time, even if in Cheltenham’s Hall of Fame he is one of the elite twelve.
So let’s cut to the chase. No pun intended. His three Gold Cups were ordinary affairs. He was impressive in 03 but then virtually any Gold Cup winner would be impressive in beating Trucker’s Tavern and Valley Henry. In 2002 he beat Commanche Court and See More Business, with the likes of Looks Like Trouble, Florida Pearl and Alexandra Banquet beaten out of sight. Yet if you read Ruby Walsh’s brilliant autobiography it is as plain as the nose on your face that Ruby thought he should have won if he had used different tactics. I remember his father after the race saying ‘that it was alright for Ruby. He is young, he’ll have other chances. But that was my one chance to win a Gold Cup,’ leaving no one in any doubt that he also thought Ruby had cocked-up.
For his third and historic Gold Cup Best Mate held on from two ordinary handicappers, Sir Rembrant and Harbour Pilot, in a race high on potential but low, as history records, on quality.
My point is that if Ruby had ridden a better judged race, and assuming that Best Mate had finished second, his record of two Gold Cups, one of which was not of the highest quality, would not be so impressive. Of course he was no one-trick pony. He won a King George and other good races. You don’t receive a rating of 182 if you are not the best around. But he was wrapped up in cotton wool and never once ran in a handicap. Henrietta Knight’s training of him was nothing short of brilliant and no one dare say different. But I believe peoples image of Best Mate is seen a bit through rose-coloured spectacles because of the geriatric love affair of Henrietta and Terry Biddlecombe and if his racing record is reviewed in light of what his opposition went on to achieve his rating might be revised downwards a fraction.
It is no one’s fault that Best Mate raced at a time when the all-round quality of steeplechasers was on the low side. The good horses were trained in Ireland and neither Beef or Salmon or Florida Pearl could ever reproduce their best form at Cheltenham. Best Mate could only beat the opposition presented to him, and no one could say with any degree of certainty that if he had raced in the time of Arkle, Golden Miller or Denman that he would not have risen to the challenge of competing against horses of a similar ability as himself. It is just that I do not believe he would have beaten either Denman or Kauto at Cheltenham and in beating them, albeit with youth on his side, Long Run rates higher in my estimation to many Gold Cup winners, including Best Mate.
What I am offering is opinion, and I know numerous people will not agree with me. I have no evidence to prove my opinion that Denman and Kauto Star, at their best, would have beaten Best Mate by a considerable distance. It is the same with the belief that if Denman had not suffered the heart condition the season after he won the Gold Cup we would now be talking about him, and not Kauto, as the best chaser since Arkle. Certainly his victories in the Hennessey are two of the most impressive wins since the heady days when Arkle, and to a slightly lesser extent Flyingbolt, would give 25 or 30lbs and a beating to top class horses.
Having decried Best Mate and possibly insulted his memory I should add that I have no doubt he would have a favourite’s chance of winning this year’s Gold Cup. Or indeed any Gold Cup since the special days of Kauto, Denman and the largely forgotten Long Run.