There has to be some sort of standard for evaluating quality and/or greatness in race horses. This was discussed extensively on a thread a few weeks ago.

If we dwell on the hypothetical ... we'll get nowhere.

Hoist The Flag may have been the greatest race horse in the history of the world ... may have been ... but he wasn't. He won two stakes races as a 2YO ... and one as a 3YO ... not enough to reach any sort of threshhold.

Stick to what they actually do in races ... and never mind how good they looked walking around the shedrow.