Silver,
My interest in the sport blossomed in the 70s. The 70s were a time when witnessing legitimate greatness was practically an annual right. IMHO, the horses you mentioned don\'t even belong in the same chapter as Secretariat, Forego, Seattle Slew, Affirmed, Alydar, Spectacular Bid, and Ruffian. In those days, a lot of Grade 1 races were like the Breeder\'s Cup is today. They were deep high quality contests with the best of multiple generations taking a shot. The typical campaign also might mean 7-10 starts. If you dominated a season, let alone 2 or 3, you were truly great.
These days the competition is so watered down because of the early retirements, shorter campaigns, long spacing between starts, opportunities to avoid top competition etc... greatness is a lot harder to prove.
I think at least some of the fan base longs to see a truly great horse have a 10 race campaign with 3-4 weeks between starts taking on all comers while spotting weight and making the competition look foolish!
IMO, it\'s that desire in part that leads to all the premature hype.
As soon as a horse puts up one or two very fast figures or demonstrates some other superior but less tangible qualities, everyone jumps on the bandwagon hoping he\'s the answer to our prayers that it can be like the 70s again.
I think some of the prematurely retired 3YOs probably would have gone on to greatness had they actually had a chance to prove it, but we\'ll never know.
Others, like Invasor and Ghostzapper were also clearly on their way.
Big Brown displayed versatility, terrific speed, the ability to overcome rough trips, and a fondness for multiple surfaces - all in a very short period of time. The same was true of Barbaro. IMHO, even though neither demonstrated real greatness, it\'s not hard for me to see why people were hoping.
