ESPN Horse American Pharoah ranks among the best

Comparing great athletes from different generations can be akin to judging an apple against an orange.

You can rely on statistics to a great degree, yet they alone do not tell an accurate story. Sometimes you have to live through something and witness it first-hand to fully understand everything that was wrapped up into someone's accomplishments.

That's why in trying to rate where American Pharoah currently stands among racing's all-time greats, my own preference is to place him among those horses I've seen during the years I've followed the sport, which, as my graying hair indicates, is a nonetheless considerable amount of time.

In going back to day one for me and assessing him against horses from 1971 on, I'd put American Pharoah among the top five, largely because he accomplished something that was matched during that span by only three other horses -- each one of them among the sport's immortals.

The Triple Crown is indeed that special and revered. If you can pull it off, you belong among the most elite collection of horses to ever grace a racetrack with no questions asked.

But where among the top five?

To build some suspense and illustrate the quality of horses ranked just below American Pharoah, here are horses six through 10:

6. Ruffian and 7. Zenyatta

Younger fans are surely bristling over this and might consider ranking another filly or mare above Zenyatta blasphemy, but Ruffian was the type of horse who took your breath away. You marveled at the way she would seize the lead and never let go of it. If not for that ill-fated match race that deprived us of an opportunity to see her at her prime, she might have ranked even higher on this list. Zenyatta, with her 19 straight wins in 20 career starts, is surely nothing shy of legendary. Yet if these two amazing amazons could meet on the same racetrack, regardless of what speed figures might say, I simply do not believe Ruffian would let Zenyatta run past her. She was that good.

8. Forego

After Secretariat left the stage, the gallant gelding dominated the sport like no one else. The only champion during the Eclipse Awards era to be named Horse of the Year in three straight years, during that span he won at every distance they tossed at him. Suffice it to say, we will never see another champion sprinter who could also win a two-mile Grade 1 stakes. He won 34 of 57 starts and rarely raced outside of New York, but in those days there was rarely a need for an older horse to race somewhere other than Belmont Park, Aqueduct or Saratoga. To watch him once was to fall in love with him. To see him close in an amazing fashion to catch Honest Pleasure in the 1976 Marlboro Cup is why you'll never forget him.

9. Cigar

To win 16 straight races is one thing. To punctuate that streak with triumphs against all challengers in premier races like the Breeders' Cup Classic, Dubai World Cup, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Woodward and Hollywood Gold Cup is top 10 material. Then again, he was the "unconquerable, invincible, unbeatable Cigar."

10. John Henry

In terms of versatility, only Secretariat could match his prowess on both turf and dirt. To win 30 races and earn nearly $7 million in the pre-Breeders' Cup era speaks volumes for his greatness, yet his 1981 feat of winning the Arlington Million on turf and the Jockey Club Gold Cup on dirt in successive races succinctly expresses his greatness.

OK, now let's jump to the top spot, where there should be absolutely no debate.

1. Secretariat

He's the gold standard. The one that every great champion is measured against, and the one they will never match.

He wasn't flawless, losing five times in a 16-race career. But when he was at his best -- and that was most of the time -- there was no one who could compete with him. He gave the sport a new vitality when he ended a 25-year Triple Crown drought, and it's safe to say no one will ever mirror what he accomplished in the series when he won all three races in track record time, capped by a 31-length coronation in the Belmont Stakes.

As incomparable as he was in the spring, his legacy was only enhanced in the fall, when he confirmed all of the greatness bestowed on him. Facing a field filled with North America's best horses, he was a decisive winner in the Marlboro Cup and then capped his glorious career with a pair of turf wins that earned him acclaim as the year's champion grass runner.

The phrase is tossed about too often, but he was indeed that once-in-a-lifetime horse.

2. Seattle Slew

He was a worthy successor to Secretariat as a Triple Crown champion. Undefeated when he completed his sweep of the classics, his career took a sharp left turn when his connections made an ill-advised decision to ship him west and race in the Swaps Stakes. The loss there was followed by an illness that sidelined him for 10 months.

When he returned at 4, a loss to Dr. Patches at the Meadowlands raised doubts about him, but decisive wins in the Marlboro Cup and Woodward quelled them. Even his final defeat -- by a nose in the mile-and-a-half Jockey Club Gold Cup after covering the first six furlongs in a blazing 1:09 2/5 -- was as impressive as any of his victories.

The competition he faced in the Triple Crown was weak and lacked a Sham or Alydar as a measuring stick, but two wins over Affirmed in the fall of 1978 -- albeit a weary Affirmed -- make it difficult to put him anywhere but No. 2 on the list.

3. Affirmed

Even with the two losses to Seattle Slew, there's a tug of the heart that says he could be No. 2.

In those matchups with Seattle Slew, Affirmed was at a disadvantage. In the last one, his saddle slipped. But beyond that, Affirmed was worn down by a grueling Triple Crown campaign and an epic rivalry with Alydar that extended into the Travers in August.

As brilliant as Secretariat may have been in the Triple Crown, neither he nor Seattle Slew nor American Pharoah had to face a foe as formidable as Alydar in all three legs of the legendary series. That Affirmed was able to beat his Calumet rival in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness and then prevail over him in their classic duel in the Belmont says everything you need to know about his heart and indomitable will to win.

Winning his final seven races after he regained his top form early in his 4-year-old campaign was a fitting way for him to bow out, but a stretch of four straight losses following his disqualification in the Travers is enough to cost him second in the photo finish with Seattle Slew.

5. Spectacular Bid

We're skipping No. 4 momentarily, for an obvious reason.

As for Spectacular Bid, he fell short in his bid to win the Triple Crown, but that's his only real flaw. He was so good no one even bothered to face him in his final race.

In his last 26 races, his only losses were the Belmont Stakes -- when a stray safety pin or a brutal pace or a ridiculously fast prerace workout, take your choice, caught up with him -- and a loss by three-quarters of a length to a 4-year-old Affirmed in the 1979 Jockey Club Gold Cup. Had he won the Belmont, he would have been No. 2, but the Test of the Champion is the kind of race that separates the greats from the immortals.

4. American Pharoah

Does he deserve this lofty of a spot based on winning the Triple Crown alone? Does the 37-year gap between Triple Crown winners answer that question?

While the Triple Crown seemed to be a snap in the 1970s, what we saw from 1978 through 2015 painted a far more accurate picture of the accomplishment. So until we see another stretch with three Triple Crown winners in five years, American Pharoah's ability to achieve what was thought to be impossible pushes him into the most elite of company. Having won seven of his eight career starts also speaks quite profoundly on behalf of his brilliance, and any thoughts that he doesn't belong in the same company as the other Triple Crown winners should have been washed away by a smashing 5.5-length victory in the Belmont Stakes, the race where fatigue was supposed to catch up with him. Yet while his career has been an A+, his grade is also incomplete.

Seattle Slew and Affirmed rank above the Zayat Stables superstar because of what they did after the Triple Crown, but that can all change.

If American Pharoah continues to race and keeps his winning streak intact while posting a victory in the Breeders' Cup Classic in his farewell appearance, he could rocket to the No. 2 spot.

Dominating in the spring of a 3-year-old campaign is a trait American Pharoah shares with Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed. But of those three, only Secretariat was able to win championship-caliber races against his elders in the fall of his 3-year-old season.

Sometimes it's difficult to appreciate the talents of a present-day athlete, and American Pharoah does tend to make herculean tasks look simple. Yet if he does not lose a beat in the fall and vanquishes older horses from all over the world in a $5 million race, to say he's something less than Seattle Slew and Affirmed would be folly.

He just might be better than them.

Time will indeed tell.