SECOND STAR TO THE RIGHT AND STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING.Yes, however.Again we are faced with comparing apples with oranges. Horses of a different period.On one scale of argument, how could anyone argue that a mare that won the Cup three times in a row was anywhere but Number One? I'd find it difficult.True it's a handicap. But three times???On another scale, the handicapping one, well, none of us saw Carbine but his record speaks volumes. And I have only known three people who saw Phar Lap. Two of

SECOND STAR TO THE RIGHT AND STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING.

Yes, however.

Again we are faced with comparing apples with oranges. Horses of a different period.

On one scale of argument, how could anyone argue that a mare that won the Cup three times in a row was anywhere but Number One? I'd find it difficult.

True it's a handicap. But three times???

On another scale, the handicapping one, well, none of us saw Carbine but his record speaks volumes. And I have only known three people who saw Phar Lap. Two of them I knew really well.

Reg Maloney was my close friend for many years. He knew and watched the great horse. He said Peter Pan was better.

Arn Rogers was a great racing man and known to many of my readers. He said that Peter Pan was the best in his time.

By a street.

And Phar Lap and Peter Pan were virtually contemporaneous and therefore to an extent comparable.

And the second star to the right? Many of you would recognise it. It's Peter's direction for Wendy, to get to the Never Land. Straight on till morning.

Opinion, of course.

I don't recall ever asking the third person the question. Sorry!

But let's be very, very rational here.

Galilee at 5 and Light Fingers at 22? She wins in '65, then runs him a decent race for second in '66 with the grandstand on board.

Doriemus at 23 and Might and Power at 11? Hang on there. Doriemus wins in '95, wins a Caulfield Cup and lips another, then lips the '97 Cup to Might and Power giving weight and nobody knows which horse has won. And Might and Power is 11, and Doriemus 23???

The Barb splits Saintly and Dalray. Well, Dalray's win was one of the all-time great big-finishing wins (rather in the Kiwi mould). Saintly's was a wonderful demolition job. The Barb? My goodness it was 1866! I don't know how you start to compare them.

Malua? Up there with the mighty Makybe, that's for sure. An all-distance champ, if my memory of the stats holds up. But frankly I'm not going to check it.

I know a great judge who maintains that Rising Fast, winner in 1954 and "shoulda" in 1955 when the rider and trainer failed to protest (it remains a major mystery of the turf as to why, since the horse, it is reported was a certainty to get the race in the stewards' room), was a champion, a GREAT horse. Look at his record some time and nod. Of his time he was the king.

The assessor never had a hope of being "right" and he did a grand job. But if one thing was established, it was that the task set was an impossible one. Handicap or not.