This horse is not on par, so I'll use him as an example.
Where were you in 2001?
This horse was having his first race.
June 22nd, Newmarket, Jamie Spencer up, a field of 11.
He won, won the next and the following 6 races was 2nd twice and 3rd twice.
Went to Hong Kong where he got a new name, raced a few times going off at 99/1, and in his first Group 1 outing beat the legendary Cape of Good Hope.
No need to go in with every minute detail BUT season after season, his rating went up, up, up.
This horse is not on par.
He defeated and dethroned his illustrious stable-mate Silent Witness (talk about shock and awe), he travelled (Tokyo in '05 where he was 4th, 5th in the Dubai Duty Free in 2006, he won the Grade 1 Yasuda Kinen in 2006 and was 3rd in the Dubai World Cup, his first time on dirt, last year).
... and through all this? Injuries and viruses.
He's nine years old now with no retirement plans in sight.
Bullish Luck is not on par.
There are quite a few like him... Group 1 horses, aging now but as game and determined as ever.
http://www.hkjc.com/english/racing/h...&Option=1#htop
It's not that I'm offended that others don't share my view... I'm not.
It's more that it strikes me as a little sad that you can have a three-time Melbourne Cup winner like Makybe Diva or a horse like Vengeance of Rain and they're
still treated as if they're not equal somehow. That i don't get, never will, but that's life.