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Where do you think Golden Horn will end up on the all-time list when the lads and lasses in Halifax get their end of season calibration out of the way.
Where would he sit among Harbinger, Mark Of Esteem, Celtic Swing, Reference Point, Cirrus Des Aigles and Old Vic? Or better or worse than all those?I don’t think he’ll be in the ‘elite’ 140+ group of horses such as Brigadier Gerard, Frankel, Sea Bird, Shergar, Dancing Brave, Sea The Stars, Mill Reef, etc More like he’ll slot in a notch down somewhere between Generous and Daylami.
Looking at the Timeform list, it doesn’t quite look right with poor ol’ Nijinsky rated lower than Reference Point
Not a lot more he can do, with only a lame looking Turf to potentially come – but Jack Hobbs winning the Classic wouldn’t do him any harm. Nijinski below Reference Point
indeed.BUY THE SUN
Nijinsky never won anything by very far so can not be rated that highly.
Nor did Golden Horn. Unless there’s a big improvement in the Turf, or if Flintshire shows there he’s better than originally thought – Golden Horn will probably get a 133 or 134.
Value Is EverythingDear Ginger, now and again you have me swooning in admiration
Ratings are an attempt to quantify the ability of a horse; they are not designed to be influenced by which or how many races the horse won, simply how they performed collaterally with the field in its races
Everyone loves Nijinsky because he won the Triple Crown, and he deserves the recognition he gets for doing that, but the feat alone doesn’t mean he should necessarily be rated above horses with a less sexy portfolio
Likewise Treve who had she won a third Arc would no doubt have been lauded ‘the greatest mare ever’ purely because the feat would have been unique, whereas a dispassionate study of her form might reveal otherwise
Roar from the heart by all means when racehorses produce ‘something special’ to the eye; after all this is a game and should be entertaining; but if analysis of merit is your sorta thing then don’t be prejudiced by the win and what’s been won
As ever Drone, you say everything I am trying to say only much more eloquently.
Value Is EverythingTimeform rate individual performances and not a horses overall greatness, hence the reason why Harbinger is high up on the list for his one off King George performance – as the rest of his form would not of entitled him to even be on the list in the first place.
I think we can all agree that Nijinsky’s greatness is not in question (like to be the last Triple Crown winner we see unless Coolmore give it another go) and to me his best performance was when he laughed at the 1969 English & Italian Derby winners (Blakeney & Hogarth), French Oaks winner Crepellana, Washington International winner Karabas and a Cornation Cup winner Caliban in the 1970 King George.
That being said, I would imagine the reason why Reference Point is rated higher than Nijinsky is because of his 3L King George win in 1987, which was against an even greater assembled field of multiple G1 winners by the likes of:
Triptych – a 5 time G1 winner at that time (shewent on to win a further 4 G1 races afterwards)
Unite – that years English & Irish Oaks winner
Sir Harry Lewis – that years Irish Derby winner
Tony Bin – multiple G1 winner in Italy & went on to win the Arc in 1988
Acattenango – multiple G1 winner & German horse of the year for 3 straight years
Moon Madness – multiple G1 winner including St LegerAn interesting side note with Reference Point was that his old school owner/breeder Louis Freedman wanted him to go for the Triple Crown but surgery for sinus problems meant that he wasn’t ready in time to run in the 2000g – a real shame, as I would have liked to have seen how he and Cauthen would have faired attempting to make all the running up the Rowley Mile (remember the winner Don’t Forget Me made all and just scambled home from Bellotto & Most Welcome, who filled the same two places behind Reference Point in the Derby).
Going back to Golden Horn, Flintshire’s highest Timeform performance is a rating of 128 so assuming he ran to that mark in the Arc, a rating of 133 for Golden Horn (in receipt of 7lbs wfa) for a 2L beating doesn’t seem unreasonable. I don’t see his rating getting much higher than that unless he were to give an on form Flintshire a 5L+ beating in the Breeders Cup Turf.
Whilst his achievement to date (Dante, Derby, Eclipse, Irish Champion & Arc) is impressive, he has yet to give us a defining jaw dropping performance that merits him being elevate into the 140 club. He is also unfortunate to follow so closely behind the likes of Frankel, Sea The Stars, Zarkava, Goldikova and Treve (1st Arc win) who have set the bar incredibly high in recent years.
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