Department of Equine Hyperbole

Sea the Stars winning the Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp. Photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images.

So long, then, Sea the Stars. A shame you won’t run as a four year old or in the Breeders’ Cup but hardly a surprise that you’re heading straight for the stud farm. The BBC News last night suggested you were the greatest horse we’d ever seen and an editorial in today’s Times suggests you may “without much quibble, be considered the greatest” of all champions.

This is a typically unecessary piece of hyperbole. It doesn’t diminish Sea the Stars one bit to note that there is room for quibble here. Comparing horses from different generations is even more difficult than measuring human athletic achievements across the years, not least because even the ratings don’t pretend to tell the full story.

True, you could argue that Sea the Stars won a “modern” Triple Crown (Guineas, Derby and Arc) and that this hasn’t been done before*.