Where does Cal Chrome rank
 

If you compared him to this point in his career vs. big brown, smarty jones, funny cide, war emblem to the same point in each of their respective careers?

He belongs with those type of horses.

None of them were especially accomplished 2yo's, but all of them except War Emblem had a huge performance at age 2.

He's about on par with that group.

Big Brown's Derby was a lot better. All four of them ran better races in the Preakness, imo. But, Chrome was the clear-cut star of the prep season this year...and that couldn't quite be said for the others...though Big Brown was huge in the FLA Derby and Smarty Jones was quite good in final 2 preps in Arkansas

further ahead than war emblem, who didn't really make a splash til the illinois derby. also a 'have to have the lead' type, so not nearly as tractable as cc. how ironic that in todays derby, war emblem wouldn't make the field.
i think he's better than funny cide. smarty was done by now, he had a good spring followed by...nothing.
i'd say he's most comparable to big brown.

If you compare his Derby and Preakness performances to those horses' Derby and Preakness performances, I would put him at the bottom of that list. His Derby and Preakness performances were very good, but not as good as the other horses on your list IMO.

CC's races in California were obviously very impressive and very dominant but in terms of analyzing how good he is, I would put more weight on his races in the Derby and Preakness where he's running against everyone, rather than just running against west coast horses at Santa Anita.

Is it really fair to include Smarty Jones in this group for not being especially accomplished at 2? He fractured his skull in July 2003 in the starting gate and didn't start til November, but he made it count when he did from what I can see. It seems like it was a case where he did have precocity, just couldn't participate yet. We don't know that he wouldn't have done something notable that fall. Something tells me he'd have made himself known in graded company at least.

You judge horses by what they did do, not what they could have done.

I agree completely, but these "best of all-time discussions" ALWAYS evoke projections from people on horses who ran sparingly because of injuries or other issues.

I think Big Brown and Smarty Jones were better than California Chrome. So too were Afleet Alex and Point Given.

I'd have Smarty Jones first, followed by Big Brown, California Chrome, War Emblem, and Funny Cide. A question I'd ask is if at this point in their respective seasons, where they considered the unquestioned leader of their class? I'd say only Smarty and Big Brown were of the five.