How do you.....

[Bravado2112]

To me true greatness is best defined as the intersection of talent and accomplishment. Many horses have great talent without enough of a resume to qualify for greatness (Ghostzapper), while many others have special accomplishments but not necessary historical talent (Lava Man)...but few have both when measured against history.

As pointed out above, the nature of racing today essentially prevents any horse from reaching greatness - at least in a historical sense. The DRF Champions book makes for great reading in seeing what the careers of some of the older superstars looked like. Horses today just don't do what those horses did. Most of them don't have the ability to (which is why greatness is an exclusive club), but the remainder never get the chance to (due to limited racing schedules or injuries). It's pretty sobering looking at the records of some of today's stars to remind yourself that a horse like Spectacular Bid was 24 for 24 at distances between 7f and 1 1/4 (14 Grade 1's) or that Buckpasser managed to put together a run of 24 wins and 2 seconds in 26 starts after his debut, or that Bold 'n Determined (hardly a household name) managed to win 7 Grade 1's in 1981 without even winning the 3 yo filly title. The examples are countless.