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I’m not arguing that Dessie was better (or even near par) with Arkle EC, I wasn’t even born so how could I ?
However Dessie was far superior to anything around at the time (IMHO) and would have won 3 gold cups had he handled Cheltenham better.
Add in the fact that it would have took an amazing performance from anything else to get past him on the run-in on a course like Kempton.
The handicapper maybe gives too much credit to a horse winning a gold cup on a fairly unique course like Cheltenham and I’m sure had Dessie rattled up a hat trick of wins there and his rating would have been considerably higher.
However he didn’t so it’s all purely conjecture.
Lee
Quote: from wilsonl on 7:56 pm on Dec. 5, 2004
However Dessie was far superior to anything around at the time (IMHO) and would have won 3 gold cups had he handled Cheltenham better.
He could also have swum the channel given a good pair of speedos.
Dessie is the best chaser i have seen…
Too much emphasis is placed on the Gold Cup anyway, but DO won everywhere and (unlike Best Mate of course) was campaigned fearlessly
Arkle may not have existed. There cannot be anyone aorund today who is compus mentis has a clear memory of that long ago and those black and white films could be anything
If Dessie had put in some of his park performances in any of his gold cups, his rating would have gone up by a good 5-10 lbs (again IMVHO).
I agree though that this would have still been nowhere near Arkle’s peak rating.
But we’re talking about ratings derived over a huge time span so any amount of variables can be brought into the equation.
I think you’re missing the point though EC. I would side with Arkle as being the better but was merely pointing out that Dessie’s popularity wasn’t just down to his colour.
Lee
Nice one EC,
But they’d have to vote for Red Rum down to his trainer being such a ‘lovely fella’ (in the words of Thommo). ;)
Quote: from EC on 8:31 pm on Dec. 5, 2004[br]:cool:  clive
Most of the general public, if asked, would nominate Red Rum as the best chaser anyway:o <br>
And Tim Henman as the best tennis player.
I came on here expecting the Azerty brigade to have switched to Well Chief for Cheltenham. Why not, the age and scope for improvement arguments apply to him even more than to the keyboard man?
But not a bit of it, Well Chief has hardly had a mention, Azerty is still the darling after rallying to regain second place, and apparently the Flyer can only win because he has the better jockey and prefers the track.
I suppose Moscow Flyer will be beaten by another chaser some day, that’s easy to forecast. But right now he is the best around and has been for some time.
#Moderation Mode
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