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Originally Posted by ateamstupid
Whatever, Bold Ruler was a miler.
Seriously though, to expand on robfla's point, if one of our qualifications is going to be "longevity" or even "beat the best competition" then there will be no more great horses. Horses no longer stick around, and trainers and owners duck other stars more often than not.
Today, it MOSTLY boils down to talent in my eyes. Hence why I think Ghostzapper was great. He wasn't sturdy, he didn't beat any other great horses (although he beat some very good ones) and he certainly didn't hang around long. His talent level and versatility, however, were absurd. Ghostzapper was one of a kind, and when your ability is that far above anything that's run in the past decade, you're great.
People will disagree with me and put horses like Invasor or Pleasantly Perfect over Ghostzapper because they danced more dances, but I'll take brilliance over longevity when it's not truly longevity, but a very relative version of it.
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so be it.
if you water down the qualifications, then it doesn't mean as much.
like i've seen written before on the subject, 'great isn't so great anymore'.
it's like what we now know as the steroids era in baseball....horses will be modern day greats, they can no longer be compared historically.