and the only time out of 4 meetings Denman was beaten by Kauto over a staying trip was the season he had a heart problem, was thought to be missing the race, was ridden in a strangely restrained way yet amazingly still came 2nd. All well it probably would have been 4-0 to Denman at trips above 3 miles without the heart problem.

3 miles and under Kauto was much better. Poor jumper though hit a fence in every other race costing him his chance in a quarter of them.

15 grade 1's to 3,and people debate which is best!!

The number of grade 1's is relevant when judging how good horses are,although not the be all and end all.
Agre with Strontium also,sums it up well.

It is ALL about the trip.

I know we're not going to agree about this Eric and there is no right answer. You've made your opinion very clear on this thread and others. I entirely agree with you that Denman's Hennessey wins off top weight were awfully impressive and his Gold Cup was awesome.

The question asked was which horse was better, not which was better at trip x (at least that's the Q in the title - I can't see the first post of the thread as I write). However, your point is interesting. KS has only ever run further than 3 m in the Gold Cup (5 times) plus one Bowl Chase, so your comparison is almost exclusively based on "the trip at Cheltenham", rather than just "the trip". It's obviously a shame that the two never met in the Hennessey or King George.

I'd prefer to take more into account than over/under 3 m (which strikes me as somewhat arbitrary), such as course variation, handedness, etc. For me, winning two Gold Cups, two Tingle Creeks and four King Georges is the better record.

I'd also note in response to Arkle's Shadow that KS has won 5 more Grade 1 chases than Denman has won chases altogether (albeit from 27 runs vs 19). You're absolutely right to point out that KS has run in a lot more G1's than Denman, but form your numbers their win percentages are 75% and 37.5% respectively.

Finally, I'm enjoying the discussion.

AS,
We are debating how good horses are,so their record in races is important.
Strontium's last post sums it up,the question was which one was best,and looking at their respective race records its quiet clear,well to me it is.
If the question had been which is better over 3m plus then we have a different debate.

The title clearly posed the usual badly thought out question ... the first post clarified it has to be broken down to trips to answer the question ... unless you are Arkle (however Flyingbolt will dispute that if you drop to 2 miles).