Actually Winx is a good example. She ran 10 times as a 3 y old losing 6 times. This was too many runs without a break.
As a 4 y old she ran 7 times. First 4 times then a 16 week break then 3 more times.
As a 5 y old she ran 8 times. First 4 then a 19 week break then 4 more.
As a 6 year old she ran 8 times. First 3 then an 18 week break then 3 more times.
And as a 7 year old she ran 8 times. Four times then a 16 week break then four more times.

She wasn't over raced and their racing system allowed her to have months off in between.

And the key point here is that she never put up one outstanding, massive performance even though she was much the best horse and long odds on all of the time.
That was as good as she was.

Brain, you missed the point.
Winx was so far superior to here opposition I am sure she could have beaten them by wider margins. Something the other champions did do. She may have had to have raced less and been fresher but ratings are based upon how far you beat your opposition and how good the opposition is.
Winx was long odds on most of the time and I am certain had her connections planned it better she could have achieved a much higher rating, possibly by running fewer times.
Of course you have to remember that she is a mare and not a stallion so her rating is not necessarily that important and by winning more high value races was the way to go.
Is that grip enough for you.

"Winx was long odds on most of the time and I am certain had her connections planned it better she could have achieved a much higher rating, possibly by running fewer times."

the objective with a wonder horse is to win G1 races........jut like r nadal and n djokovic's objective is to win grand slams............you are suggesting that winx's connections should have only run her 4 times a year instead of 8 and therefore win 10-15 G1 races instead of 25?.........all in the pursuit of what a better rating?......ratings are based on opinion........they mean nothing. what matters about frankel is that he ran in 10 G1 races and put in spectacular performances just like Winx..i dont care about his rating.....im glad winx was a mare. if she were a colt it would have been half the races she won but at least that would be better than whats happening with flightline......he needs to be kept in training and run in at least 8 G1 races next year........then we can talk about him and secretariat.

Flightline the only hoss this year to threaten the great Frankel's world ranking.
Baeeed will remain ranked 10 lb lower.

is this the greatest 1.44 shot of all time?......i think so, but i cant bring myself to put a grand on

beyond 9f i mean

it won,as do most good horses before...arrogate was supposed to be the next big thing...and there will be another next year

I can't see how Timeform can improve it's rating for Flightline with the 2nd fav pulled up, and Life Is Good not staying at that pace (or any pace really). The 2nd and 3rd runners are 125'ish performers and he beat them just over 8 length. His current 143 shouldn't really be bettered by last nights run unless they bump the 2nd and 3rd ratings.


Spot on.

Earned a Timeform rating of 136 for the Classic run.


The Pacific Classic took Flightline into new territory and his victory there earned a rating of 143 – the highest that Timeform have ever awarded to a North American-trained horse since they began covering racing more extensively in that jurisdiction in the early 1990s. Again, it was race standards and a very fast overall time that gave credence to rating the race so highly.

That brings us on to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where his victory by eight and a quarter lengths is a record winning margin for the race and earned him a Timeform rating of 136. The bare form is rather held down by Olympiad and Taiba, very smart Grade 1 winners in their own right, but almost in a separate race having sat off the strong gallop set by the non-staying Life Is Good.

Running to very high ratings requires circumstances to allow the opportunity just as much as ability and the Pacific Classic was the one occasion where everything dropped right for Flightline to do so. While it’s no surprise that his career comes to an end after the Breeders’ Cup Classic, it does seem a shame that he will leave that wider public consciousness as quickly as he entered it after just six starts, with many people left questioning where he stands in the pecking order of equine greatness.

Timeform are happy to let others decide what constitutes true greatness and how important other attributes like versatility, consistency and longevity are alongside ability, but in terms of ratings, only Frankel (147), Sea-Bird (145), Brigadier Gerard and Tudor Minstrel (both 144) have ever been awarded higher end-of-year Timeform ratings.

As stated earlier, Timeform only began compiling US ratings in the 1990s, so it doesn’t have a published figure for Secretariat. In A Century of Champions, published by Timeform, but written by John Randall and Tony Morris, they rated Secretariat 144, Citation 142, Spectacular Bid and Seattle Slew 141 and Native Dancer and Affirmed 140 as the leading performers in America in the last century. US racing journalist Andy Beyer has been compiling speedfigures in America privately for over fifty years and publicly for over thirty and awarded Secretariat a retrospective rating of 139. His ratings are on a different scale to Timeform’s (and Randall and Morris) and, if translated to the Timeform scale, would put Secretariat on a figure in the low 150s.

As good as Flightline has looked and threatened to be, Big Red’s position at the top of the US tree seems safe for a while yet.
https://www.timeform.com/horse-racing/features/generic-feature/flightline-the-timeform-verdict-7112022