Last-start winner mentality appears to have taken over with viewpoints on See The Stars, who nevertheless did a brilliant job in winning the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe last Sunday.
There looks little if any doubt that See The Stars is the best horse in the world this year, in reality, not just in the eyes of Europeans, who routinely rate the Arc winner the world's best.
But there's almost a game of one upmanship going on with the plaudits, with each comment on See The Stars adding a layer of gloss for the super three-year-old.
And when the call is now becoming 'the greatest ever'... well, that does cover a lot of ground. And it covers a lot of questions which, doubtless, Sea The Stars will never even be asked.
Some of the great turf achievements that were demanded of top horses once upon a time are not demanded of them now - the idea of racing on to five or six is even considered pass? so reputations are forged in months and handfuls of races rather than years.
Perhaps that is as it needs to be when the rich bounty of stallion duties calls, but that does preclude the tag of 'best ever' from being bestowed on any of them, for we shall never know how many of the short-lived 'great' ones would have melted under the hot glare of further competition. We suspect many a star three-year-old would have gone missing after becoming four and finding himself under attack from the next bunch of enthusiastic three-year-olds.
