All flat season long we were told by the custodians of the statistics that Rock Of Gibraltar was not, even if the communal eye suggested it, one of the greats. Never mind the record seven consecutive Group Ones, they said, never mind that Sir Alex Ferguson’s colt had done it on turf. He had achieved nothing on paper to place him at the top of the page in the dusty record books. “Who knows how good he could have been?” Dominic Gardiner-Hill, a British Horseracing Board handicapper, said as The Rock was given a rating of 128. “He could have been the best horse we’ve seen in the last 10 years.”Sadly, he was never asked to win his races by far enough and never met the calibre of opposition that would allow us to rate him any higher. We can’t just pick a figure from the realms of fantasy.”When you run in and win seven consecutive Group Ones it becomes difficult to imagine what calibre of opponent you are meant to beat.

But then Rock Of Gibraltar is a horse who conjures up controversy.Earlier this week he was shortlisted as Horse Of The Year in the US Eclipse Awards which will be awarded later this month, despite the fact that he was beaten on his only start in America It is the obverse to Europe’s attitude to Rock Of Gibraltar. He has won nothing over the Atlantic but they still think he might be a champion.Rock Of Gibraltar’s rating puts him 2lb ahead of his Ballydoyle stablemate High Chaparral, the dual Derby winner. The French Derby winner Sulamani, who will be with Godolphin for a four-year-old campaign, is also rated at 126 after finishing runner-up to the Dubai team’s Marienbard in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Marienbard himself, who is now retired, is rated 127 to earn the mantle of top older horse.The Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem is the top-rated American three-year-old on 124, while Terry Mills’s Where Or When, winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, is highest rated of that age in Britain on 123.The official perception of 2002 is that it was rather a lame year in terms of quality. A barometer of this theory is the 119 rating for Kyllachy, which makes him the joint lowest top-rated sprinter in the last 10 years.”Marienbard was yet another advert for keeping a horse in training,” Nigel Gray, the senior handicapper, said.

“Having been rated 111 in 2000 and 113 in 2001, he managed three Group One wins as a four-year-old.”It’s very hard to pick holes in his Arc form. Horses like High Chaparral and Sulamani ran to form and Islington, rated 120, was just behind in fifth. Behind that you have Aquarelliste and Anabaa Blue, while Japan Cup winner Falbrav was ninth having run consistently all season.”It probably wasn’t a vintage year but there’s no reason to be negative at the start of a new one. There are a lot of horses just a couple of pounds behind the top-rated and plenty of strength in depth. Horses like Sulamani and High Chaparral stay in training, giving us plenty to look forward to.”There are anomalies also in the two-year-old division. Hold That Tiger, the Grand Criterium winner, and third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, looked the best European two-year-old of last season, yet there are seven horses rated ahead of him.