definitions & constitution Hill.

​Apparently, according to whoever wrote-up the feature on the Japan Cup in this morning’s Racing Post, if Auguste Rodin were to win this weekend, he would join the elite status as ‘one of the immortals’. This debatable attribution got me thinking if anyone has applied definition to the various adjectives given to denote the place in the pantheon of excellence a racehorse achieves during its career.
Some horses are declared top-class; others great; some are legendary. Auguste Rodin teeters on the brink of being celebrated as ‘one of the immortals’. If this is a correct attribution, which I doubt anyone outside of Coolmore or Ballymore would concur with, a new term must be used to rank those racehorses of history who achieved far more in their careers than Auguste Rodin.
Before I attempt to develop my point of view, I must intercede with my belief that no three-year-old colt that is whisked off to stud can be regarded as an all-time great, only the best of his generation. City of Troy, as good as he was occasionally, will, in my eyes, only be ever considered the best of his generation, though he achieved that honour as both a two-year-old and as a three-year-old. Even so, in my estimation he ranks lower than Sea The Stars and Dancing Brave who were only the best of their three-year-old generation. To me, truly great flat horses must have c.v.’s similar to that achieved by Frankel and Brigadier Gerard.
Using a fairly old copy of The Penguin English Dictionary the definitions for ‘good’, ‘top-class’, ‘great’ and ‘legendary’, are : Good – of a favourable or desirable character or tendency – deserving of respect – adequate, satisfactory.
As you can see the term ‘good’ as applied to a sporting endeavour is rather vague, so perhaps we should drop the phrase ‘a good horse on his day’.
Great – extreme in effectiveness – eminent in a particular field.
Legendary – celebrated as if in legend, very famous.
Immortal – living for ever, enduring, of lasting fame.
Professionals, I realise, will define the true ability of a horse by the highest rating attributed either by the B.H.A. handicapper or the Racing Post. Yet I would argue that I once came top in a geography exam, which would suggest something that is unwise to believe. As I am presently belittling Auguste Rodin let me use him as an example of my thinking. He won a Derby and various other Group 1 races. On his day, he was obviously a top-class racehorse. But he also bombed-out occasionally. To my way of thinking his true mark would a median of his best and worse runs, not the rating he will retire with. A new term must be found to describe the merit of similar horses – those that are exceptional one-day and less than reliable on other days. So, using the five categories I have gone with, Auguste Rodin will not retire an ‘immortal’ but a good horse ‘who might have done better’.
I will stray from the flat to give examples of horses who I believe deserve to be described as top-class, great or legendary.
As of now, Galopin Des Champs, State Man and Constitution Hill are top-class, with the former the more likely of the three to be elevated to ‘one of the greats’. Spanish Steps and horses of his ilk can be described as ‘one of the greats’ due to his place as a cherished memory to so many people. Bula, Persian War and Altior are also examples as being ‘one of the greats’.
In the top-class and ‘one of the greats’ categories the list is pretty endless, with bias playing a part in peoples’ selection, as with my nomination of Spanish Steps. When it comes to legendary the list will be shorter and somewhat obvious. Firstly, though, some horses go beyond legendary – Arkle, Red Rum and Desert Orchid, for instance. Though the former is undoubtedly the greatest racehorse of all-time, flat or jumps, the other two removed themselves from merely living in the horse-racing world and on to the front pages of the daily newspapers and to this day if the man on the street were to be asked to name a racehorse the answer would most likely be Red Rum or Desert Orchid.
The flat has only one legend, I believe, and that is Frankel, though the likes of Ribot, Galileo (mainly as a stallion) and Brigadier Gerard are worth far more than merely being described as ‘one of the greats’. If only flat horses were allowed to race beyond four and were disqualified from taking up stud duties as four-year-olds.
Over jumps the legends come at you thick and fast – Sea Pigeon, Night Nurse, Monksfield, Sprinter Sacre, Moscow Flyer, Kauto Star, Big Bucks, Denman. On the flat I would suggest Brown Jack, with Kyprios as a legend in waiting.
When it comes to defining the true ability of a racehorse hyperbole is a tool for masking shortcomings. We need, I believe, a more strategic method of sorting the wheat from the chaff, the good from the better, the top-class from the great. The legends require no input from man to hoist their names high above the names of those who rode them in their victories, their trainers or owners.

Would you Adam and Eve it, Constitution Hill is lame again. Do you know who I blame – the trainer. He damned fate only last week by vehemently reminding naysayers that there has never been anything physically wrong with Constitution Hill. I think he even said the horse had never been lame in his life. For whatever reason, the racing gods have it in for Nicky Henderson and Michael Buckley and when Nicky said what he said, the gods saw a golden opportunity to mock him one more time.
The wheels are falling off, yet they fell off Sprinter Sacre for the best part of two-years and yet Nicky Henderson got him back to within a fetlock of his brilliant best. Let us hope for another fete of training of a similar level. The great man should have been knighted for Sprinter Sacre. If Constitution Hill wins the Champion Hurdle come March, nothing short of a Lordship will befit the achievement.