Racing: In late January of 1995, the undersized foal that would become the steeplechasing giant that is Best Mate found himself lying on wet snow at Jacques Van't Hart's farm in Co Meath. He was weeks early, cold and faced a struggle to survive.

But survive he did.

Just a couple of months later, and due to being continually outside in rain and dirt, the little foal had a different problem: his hair fell out, all of it. He looked so dreadful the staff at the farm started calling him "Gonzo". Again, survival rather than any notions of future stardom were all that mattered, and again survive he did.

It's important to remember that start when looking at the best jump horse in the world in full pomp: style and grace may have been the soundtrack to Best Mate's rise to racing superstardom but he can still call on that spit-in-your-eye toughness if he has to. And it's that faculty that will probably ensure his ascendancy to racing's highest table in Thursday's Gold Cup.

Just three horses have won three successive Gold Cups and if ever someone gets the idea of cutting some sort of Mount Rushmore into the North Cork rock from which steeplechasing was born, then there will be no mistaking the figures.

Golden Miller, Cottage Rake and Arkle will stare sternly, as they currently peer from the past, and continue to provide the acid test for racing greatness.

Now the metaphorical chisels are almost certainly going to have get working again because those who believe Best Mate won't complete his own three-in-a-row on Thursday are scarcer than an ethical scruple in Leinster House.

"I saw a picture of him recently cantering up the gallops and the best artist in the world couldn't paint a horse like him," says Conor O'Dwyer, a jockey who enjoyed his own Gold Cup success on Imperial Call in 1996.

"I've not seen anything like him in the 20 years I've been in the game. There's nothing to stop him bar a fall. Even then he could fall twice and still win."

In many respects, Henrietta Knight's horse is now so superior to his rivals that his real competition comes from history and his place in it.

"I think there's a fair chance Best Mate may retire at the end of his career and we won't know how good he is," predicts another Gold Cup winner whose name alone conjures up the sort of history that Best Mate will soon be part of.

Jim Dreaper trained Ten Up to win in 1975, just nine years after his father, Tom, prepared Arkle for his third Gold Cup triumph.

Ever since that day, "himself" has been the benchmark and Dreaper has had to put up with inquisitive hacks eager to associate his family name with the latest pretender to the throne.

It's probably not just Knight who regrets the penchant of her husband, Terry Biddlecombe, for bandying around Best Mate's name in the one sentence with Arkle's. To some it's heresy but Dreaper has developed a weary resignation.

"It makes absolutely no difference to me. Any time a new cracker comes along the comparisons are made: this one is the new Messiah, the new Arkle, the new whatever. It happens to the best in every generation," he says.

"If Best Mate wins he will certainly deserve it and on his Gold Cup performances you couldn't fault him. He could end up winning four or five Gold Cups if he is kept to these weight-for-age races," Dreaper added.

Which is precisely the rub for those who believe comparisons to Arkle are little short of a national insult. Arkle caused a change in the handicapping system such was his ability to win while giving away lumps of weight. For the purists there is no better way for establishing every horse's level.

"Whether this horse is in the Arkle or Golden Miller mode, I don't know. I think it is a little bit over the top with him at the minute. He is running in weight-for-age races and sometimes not winning them," says Tommy Carberry who rode Ten Up 29 years ago.

"Arkle always won his weight-for-age races by a distance. It was running in handicaps that gave him problems."

Since he also won the Gold Cup twice with L'Escargot and once on Tied Cottage, trained and rode a Grand National winner, sired a champion jockey and generally created his own legend, Carberry is someone whose overview carries weight of the same sort Arkle used to be burdened with.

"Best Mate is obviously the best around at the minute and I can't see anything around to beat him at Cheltenham if he is in top form. I just think it's hard to find a place for him when you think of the elite horses. When you start talking about Golden Miller and Arkle I think he is short of getting into that class. I think that's a little bit high for him.

"The other two were able to win handicaps. Golden Miller won a National as well. If you're not taken out of weight-for-age races then I think you are going to have an easier life," he says.

The Knight team has made it clear they want Best Mate around for the long term and as a result his visits to the track have been sparing.

Cheltenham in March is all that counts. Three starts last season culminated in a Gold Cup victory that oozed class but told us little we didn't already know.

"Winning by eight or 10 lengths against Truckers Tavern and Harbour Pilot at levels is nothing amazing. Harbour Pilot carried 10.2 in the Hennessy that season so you would expect Best Mate to win at levels," says Dreaper.

The tease of the horse, however, is the unmistakable impression that there is so much left in the tank if ever a task demanded Best Mate to delve into that latent barrel of toughness which kept him alive nine years ago. It's just that it will have to be a genuine opponent rather than a handicap providing the challenge.

"Racing has changed and the likes of Best Mate don't have to carry huge weights any more. Best Mate could probably do it if he had to but why burden him if it isn't necessary?" says O'Dwyer, who like most people cannot see a threat on Thursday.

"If Beef Or Salmon is back to his very best and puts in a very good round of jumping then he could be a problem but he had a bad fall in the race last year and to me has been a fraction of the horse since."

Keen Leader, Kingscliff and the others are smart horses too but they all have the misfortune to have been born at the same time as a towering champion.

Maybe one will overachieve next week and extend Best Mate but champions tend to win whatever is thrown against them.

The perfect racehorse that will appear on Thursday has been doing that for nine years. Only the foolish will bet seriously against him breaking the habits of a lifetime now.