Gordon, you're a very hard man to please if you think SS is overrated.

How many horses do the Cheltenham, Aintree, Punchestown treble in one season?  That was 3 Grade 1 wins in the space of 5 weeks, beating Sizing Europe (a QMCC and Arkle winner) twice in the process.

I'm convinced he would have won the Champion Chase as a novice too, if they felt like going for it.

If anything, I'd say he is overrated now, rather than in his prime.  He is rated 170 now; 1 pound more than after his Arkle win, but I'm convinced if the novice Sprinter raced the current Sprinter, it would be no contest.

Back to UDS, I too think he has lost some of his wow factor, but I don't necesarily see that as a negative.  That last run was more professional than any other, and it's ability and consistency that ends up being the winning formula, not being a loon but then falling every third race.

Bt Lightening Rod 24l (6 ran)
Bt Peddlers Cross 16l (3 ran)
Bt French Opera 6l (6 ran)
Bt Cue Card 6l (7 ran) - OK decent run
Bt Toubab 13l (4 ran)
Bt Kumbeshwar 15l (7 ran)
Bt Mad Moose 14l (7 ran)
Bt Sizing Europe 19l (7 ran) - a master minded type run, never repeated
Bt Cue Card 4.5l (6 ran) - was this an improvement on earlier defeat of cue card? probably not but was over 20f which would have suited cc more
Bt Sizing Europe 5.5l (5 ran) - margin much less than in QM and probably an indicator of things to com

Lets be fair to sprinter this was a monster run for which his rating at the time was fully deserved, lets not forget this was a previous QM winner, who had run 2nd the previous year and who had plenty of festival form having won the Arkle as a novice. Can't have it that his rating was over-hyped he throughly deserved it for this performance and honestly it could have been further as those that were that day could attest to. You do not win Championship races this far, when you do they are exceptional horses. Sizing Europe was still a very very good horse and he was thrashed out of sight!

I understand what you are saying though Gordon, beating Cue card 6L & 7L i think stands the test of time. I really feel the heart problem has really stolen two years where he might have carried on hammering the opposition. I was really excited by the cheltenham comeback, just mugging SDG was a slight disappointment.

not that you're guilty of it, but one race does not make a superstar -

voy por ustedes at the festival - won arkle by 1.25l in 14 runner field, won QM by 1.5l in 10 runner field, demolished 19l by master minded in 8 runner field (with Newmill previous QM further back and Twist Magic, winner of 2 x Tingle Creek, 1 x Punchestown 2m champion chase and 1 x VC)

it seemed VPU kept his form over that period based on other non-festival runs, so personally I'd rate master minded higher than anything sprinter did on that one run, however overall i would have sprinter ahead but not by much and as much as I'm not a huge fan of times master minded clocked 3m55.8 when handing out his 19l beating to VPU whereas sprinter clocked 4m0.2 on his 19l beating of sizing europe

Lets be fair to sprinter this was a monster run for which his rating at the time was fully deserved, lets not forget this was a previous QM winner, who had run 2nd the previous year and who had plenty of festival form having won the Arkle as a novice. Can't have it that his rating was over-hyped he throughly deserved it for this performance and honestly it could have been further as those that were that day could attest to. You do not win Championship races this far, when you do they are exceptional horses. Sizing Europe was still a very very good horse and he was thrashed out of sight!

The thing is though Gordon, Sprinter won the best Arkle I have ever seen, and likely to ever see to be honest. Going into the race, Menorah and Al Ferof were Supreme winners, Cue Card a bumper winner and Supreme fourth, and Blackstairmountain was a G1 winning hurdler in Ireland.

Since that race, SS has won 6 G1's (and would have been more), Cue Card has won 5 G1's, Menorah has won 1 G1 and 2 G2's, Al Ferof has won 3 G2's and a Paddy Power and Blackstairmountain has won a £450,000 G1 Chase in Japan.  That's a pretty impressive roll of honour for what you have simply put as "Bt Cue Card 6l (7 ran) - OK decent run".

The Master Minded race; that was a freak one off, albeit an absolutely amazing performance.  Remember though, Master Minded did that, but then got stuffed by Voy Por three weeks later at Aintree.  Sprinter won his Champion Chase, then hosed up at Aintree, and then won at Punchestown - a QMCC, a Melling Chase and then a Punchestown Champion Chase by a total of 28 lengths; in 5 weeks!!!

Nothing wrong at all in putting up a different view point, but for me it's a complete non argument.

I could go into how Well Chief was absolutely miles ahead of everything in Voy Por's QMCC, but that will bring me to tears

Gordon I am gobsmacked by your dismissal of SS.

Having been going races for more years than I care to remember and always going to the full Chelt festival; watching SS in the flesh before his health issues is possibly the finest display of jumping and class I have witnessed.

As others before me have pointed out he was demolishing multiple G1 winners with the utmost contempt. A real and true beast. He is still very decent despite his tribulations!

What I want reminded of is what has jenny pitman got to do with odds on at the fez? Lol Confused

Carvills Hill / Golden Freeze / Toby Tobias