I would argue that the John Durkan and the Irish Gold Cup form is just as good as the King George and Gaelic Warrior is the common denominator to all three races.
For clarification, when I mean ‘most talented’ I am talking about a horse’s natural talent and to me Gaelic Warrior is the standout in that field.
He won what was the 2m Irish Sweeps Handicap Hurdle in Ireland under top weight of 11-12 (the only horse to win carrying more than that was Champion Hurdler Comedy of Errors), GW was runner up in the 2m5f Ballymore and then won a G1 3m hurdle at Punchestown. His first two chase races over 2m3f saw him beat Inothewayurthinkin (15L) and Il Etait Temps (5L) and the won an Arkle Chase over 2m.
He won the Aintree Bowl over 3m1f beating Grey Dawning and the the aformentioned John Durkan over 2m3f beating FTF (a contender for race of the season) and has won on ground ranging from good to heavy and everything inbetween. In 21 career starts he has only finsihed outside of the first 3 just twice.
The Jukebox Man would not have been capable of a lot of those things and outside of his King George win, his form isn’t as strong and I do believe that he will need to improve again on his King George run to win – his two wins prior to that was beating Iroko and Hyland who are both running in the Ultima Handicap Chase tomorrow.
Yes I wouldn’t disagree that he is likely open to more improvement than GW based on him having only had 11 career starts but on natural talent he falls short of GW…..well to me he does.