STEVE DENNIS

Weblog:  Desperate measures for desperate times

Great horse - maybe. Awful name - certainly

HOW good was that, then? No, that is not the almost breathless squeak of the habitually overexcited, but the level question requiring a rational answer. How good is Sea The Stars?And isn't a pity that he has such a ridiculous name.

He has now won Guineas, Derby and Eclipse and looked relatively unextended in each race. The Eclipse was probably his least impressive performance, to be fair, as the older horses were not up to the grade - just shows what a St Leger win will do for you - and his nearest rival was a horse who is palpably not close to top class. You might call Rip Van Winkle classy, if that's the kind of thing you like doing, but never in his life will he be top class.

But you can't rag Sea The Stars (why doesn't he have a proper name?) for the inadequacies of his rivals at Sandown. And whatever the time of the race, it's irrelevant. Time is to ability as blindness is to proofreading.

He beat a regular top-notcher at Epsom in Fame And Glory and the high-class Delegator at Newmarket. He is an exceptional horse in that he has won three huge races in two months, something no other horse has done for 20 years. Winning the Eclipse bottomed Nashwan, and he later struggled to beat the plucky trier Cacoethes at Ascot before being boiled at Longchamp.

Winning the Eclipse doesn't look like it will bottom Sea The Stars, but can we yet call him great?

No.

He has greatness in him, certainly, but if he gets beat three times between now and a lucrative stud career then it will be deemed not to have blossomed. Was Lammtarra great? No. Was Dancing Brave great? Yes. Dubai Millennium? No. Montjeu? Maybe.

In the last 40 years, the greats have been Nijinsky, Mill Reef, Brigadier Gerard, Dancing Brave, Dayjur. Generous is in the right postcode, as is Montjeu and the underestimated High Chaparral. Yeats is a great stayer but stayers aren't greats.

At the moment, you couldn't put Sea The Stars (can we change his name?) among the front five, making it a front six, obviously. If he wins King George, Irish Champion and Arc then it might behard not to, although the competition out there is thin on the ground outside Ballydoyle. At the moment, though, there is greatness in him only, and that's what makes him so exciting to watch.

Any chance he'll race at four?
And what a bad name for a good horse.