I have one more point to make. I've already said it, but I don't know if I really made it clear. In my opinion, you don't assess a horse's ability simply based on who they beat. It's not who they beat. It's how they did it. Case in point is Afleet Alex. He may not have beaten anyone great in the Preakness or Belmont, but you could still see that AA was a great horse based on his performance in those two races. It doesn't matter who he beat. It was how he did it.
Giacomo, on the other hand, won the KY Derby and he beat a great horse in Afleet Alex(who obviously did not run his best in the Derby ) that day. So not only did Giacomo win a huge race, he beat a great horse. Despite this, Giacomo is far from a great horse.
So we have Afleet Alex who never beat anyone and he is a great horse. Then you have Giacomo who did beat someone, yet Giacomo is not a great horse.
This type of stuff is quite typical in horseracing. There are many ordinary horses out there who have beaten great horses. And there are many great horses who have never beaten good horses. It's not who you beat. It's how you do it.
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