How the greatest dual-purpose jockey of all time still rides in racing folklore

As racing people we're all prone to a bit of hyperbole, often caught up in a moment to herald something seemingly seminal or anoint someone or other an all-time great.

The best ever, even. Sometimes, inevitably, such babble is rooted in commercial imperatives and sometimes it is more authentically born, but only in the fullness of time can anything even remotely conclusive be established. That broader context often isn't visible when you view something up close; only when you step back and see it from a certain remove do the flaws become clear. 

Of course, racing relies a lot on numbers to knit generations together, but as Aidan O'Brien observed recently, even official ratings are subjectively formulated, and we know they are prone to inflation as well. It's an inexact science, for all that we might like to think otherwise, as are our own impressions, but it is the impressions made on those who live through a particular period that tend to endure.