Horse sense: Compare over dirt and turf

Such accolades are all well and good, but is it really possible to single out a horse and state that he or she is the best of its kind?

Aside from the domestic awards, handicappers from all over the world sit down together and form the World Thoroughbred Rankings, which I think could be somewhat flawed.

At present, with a rating of 135, Sea The Stars is rated the best horse in the world, and while it doesn't really make much difference where he is ranked because he's been retired, should his position in the list be higher than that of Breeders Cup Classic winner Zenyatta who is currently 7lb inferior?

The US-trained queen of racing is unbeaten in all 14 of her racecourse starts, all on an artificial surface. She has never run on grass. Sea The Stars however, has done all his racing on the grass (never run on an all weather surface) and retired with less outings than his female counterpart while also managing to get beaten. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but admiration for the six-time G1 winner; in Europe, he is probably the best horse I am ever likely to see. Mind you, I did think Istabraq was pretty good!

Each horse was the best on their respective surface, therefore, how can a judging panel deem a horse that races on turf better than one that doesn't?

To put it into perspective, or make my point clearer (the latter is perhaps more appropriate) Zenyatta's win in the Breeders' Cup Classic was in 2m 0.62s while Sea The Stars' success in the Juddmonte International at York was in 2m 05.29s.

Each race was over 2,000m, underfoot conditions much the same, while both courses are also reasonably similar with regard to them being large, left-handed galloping flat tracks. The other horse I mentioned, Rachel Alexandra, has scored on 11 of her 14 starts and clocked a very respectable 1m 55.08s when collecting the Preakness Stakes in May over almost 2,000m. I suppose it's just great that there are so many top quality horses around at the moment, but I worry that the best in America are being given a raw deal because of horses that race on the more established grass surface. We can only wait and see what the handicappers eventually have to say.

Finally a mention

All of the above pales into insignificance bearing in mind the injuries sustained by Dubai Stable work-rider "Tommo" Thompson who broke his leg following a fall last week. Tommo has been based in Dubai since the year dot and often asks me why I have not given him a mention in this column. Well here you are mate, sorry it isn't under better circumstances, but get well soon anyway.