Master trainer McCaire has champion insight

There is no-one better qualified to assess this season’s Champion Chase than Guillaume Macaire.

After all, the effervescent handler was at one time responsible for Twist Magic, Master Minded and last year’s winner, Voy Por Ustedes.

And then there was Paul Nicholls’ Azertyuiop, the brilliant 2004 champion who began his career under the tutelage of the French maestro.

It is a racing inevitability that when a Macaire “pupil” begins to sparkle in his homeland, the star-spangled predators from across the Channel move in for the kill.

Twist Magic won three small pots at Auteuil before being bought to train at Nicholls’ yard, while the rapidly-improving Master Minded was purchased for Kauto Star’s owner Clive Smith and headed to Ditcheat last December.

But it is the performances of Voy Por Ustedes, whom Macaire bred several years ago, which provide him with the most excitement from out of his crop of current two-mile chasers.

“It’s very exciting that a lot of my ex-pupils are in the race,” said Macaire.

“All them are very good, especially Twist Magic and Voy Por Ustedes, but it is difficult to say who I think is the best.

“Having the right profile for Cheltenham is difficult to find but I do feel proud when I see the runners for the Champion Chase.

“From my point of view I hope Voy Por Ustedes wins because I helped to breed him.

“It will be very difficult to win at Cheltenham for a third year in a row but I keep my fingers crossed.”

Based at La Palmyre, near Royan on the Bay of Biscay, it is fair to describe Guillaume Macaire as larger than life.

One of the game’s great philosophisers, there can be few trainers in this country whose means of relaxation include twilit oil-painting at sea.

Like any self-respecting Frenchman, he is also a prude when it comes to cuisine and is well stocked on his occasional raids to Blighty with healthy portions of goat’s cheese, sausage and bread.

Macaire’s quirks, however, are handsomely offset by his supreme talents at making money with thoroughbreds.

Having dropped out of his Paris law studies to enter the racing world, the man who once worked with Guy Harwood landed his first champion jumps crown in 1997.

Macaire has snared five more French championships in addition to his greatest achievement in 2006, when he smashed Martin Pipe’s world-record for the most jumps winners trained in a season.

Pipe saddled an incredible 243 victories in 1999-2000 but Macaire surpassed that landmark at a canter.

“That was a very, very good 12 months – it felt as if we couldn’t lose,” considered the French trainer, who ended the year with 258 winners.

Macaire has never trained a winner at the Cheltenham Festival but could feasibly have left Prestbury Park with the biggest prize of them all four years ago – had Lady Luck not played a cruel hand.

In 2004 the brilliant Jair Du Cochet was widely considered the biggest threat to Best Mate in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, having defeated him in the Peterborough Chase of that year.

But during his final workout before the Festival, the seven-year-old broke a leg on Macaire’s gallops and had to be put down.

Best Mate won a third consecutive Gold Cup and Macaire has not returned to Cheltenham.

“Jair Du Cochet is behind me now,” insisted Macaire.

“I had the most wonderful moments with him but also one of the worst moments of my life.

“That was probably my year to catch the Gold Cup because ’The King’ (Best Mate) was not at the same level as he was.

“I have not been to Cheltenham since 2003 and I have not really wanted to.

“I think the place is wonderful but it is not the same when you have no runners competing.

“To go somewhere like that without having a chance would not be my style.”

With 210 victories last year, Macaire’s appetite for winners is as unquenchable as ever.

And with another promising clutch of three-year-olds to mould into potential superstars, many of whom are likely to end up in Britain, the French handler is confident the future has never looked brighter.

“I always have dreams and it’s important to dream because life is not worth living without reaching for the top,” he concluded.

“I just hope that once again we can by visited by the racing Gods who will give us some more star pupils.”

Divine intervention is unlikely to be a factor if Twist Magic, Voy Por Ustedes or Master Minded finish top of the class on March 12.