When In Rome

News that Golden Horn is likely to be retired at the end of the season has generated some tried and trusted criticism along the lines of how is flat racing supposed to generate public attention when its headline acts are packed off to stud as soon as their profile threatens to break out of the sport's narrow confines.

It misses the fundamental reality that flat racing is as much industry as sport. And a failure, or an unwillingness, to grasp that means failing to grasp the overall horsey picture, a picture that has successfully trotted along for a couple of centuries without having to bend over backwards fretting about what the general public thinks of it, when, or if, that public thinks of it at all.

Anyone able to own and breed a Derby winner is hardly struggling for money so it can't be a strictly financial matter for Anthony Oppenheimer when he talks about retiring his outstanding champion. That's not to say the bottom line doesn't come into it. But so does the business of bloodstock which might not be front and centre in the public consciousness but is still one of the two sides to the flat racing coin.

You either get that or you don't, and plenty clearly do. Are Sea The Stars or Nijinsky revered less in racing folklore just because they didn't race at four? Of course they're not. It's also worth recalling how another great horse, Frankel, did race at four, a perfect advertisement of what holds so many of us in thrall to racing, and no en-masse magic light-bulb appeared to switch on over Joe Public's head.

People like what they like. People certainly don't like being told what they should like. Racing in these islands continues to tie itself in knots, dumbing down for a theoretical mass audience, whilst failing to realise that its complexity and nuances are precisely what attracted its real fans in the first place. And Golden Horn is just the sort of champion which has caught the imagination of those fans already.

Actually, and maybe it is because he isn't the property of one of the elite ownership battalions, there is a sense that the colt is actually being underrated. Frankie Dettori counts him among the best he's ridden and it will be fascinating to see how his career pans out in handicap terms. His Derby performance was rated 1lb better than Sea The Stars' and a decisive defeat of The Grey Gatsby should have the ratings machine whirring.

Those that know don't have to wait until the Arc to realise they're looking at something special. And those that need that long to twig it probably don't really care that much in the first place.

Kauto Star represented a National Hunt antithesis to such considerations and there was a genuine outpouring of regret at news that the great steeplechaser had been put down. If some of that regret veered towards sentiment, then so be it: even the toughest of tough guys have felt sentimental about horses at some stage - it's that sort of game.

An almost instant reaction was to try and quantify how good Kauto Star was in relation to other legends and this corner wouldn't quibble much with those who rate him as possibly the best steeplechaser seen since Arkle.

It's the range of his abilities that set him apart. From two miles to an extended three and a quarter, Kauto Star was a proven Grade 1 winner. You couldn't say the same about Best Mate, Sprinter Sacre, Denman or any of the other greats of the last two decades. The only valid comparison really is with Desert Orchid.

Since 'Top 5' lists are ubiquitous in relation to damn near everything these days, this is yet another hopelessly subjective 'Top-5 steeplechasers since Arkle' list - Kauto Star, Desert Orchid, Captain Christy, Denman, Silver Buck: And no, I haven't forgotten Dawn Run, Best Mate and Sprinter Sacre!

Since we're on the hopelessly subjective, and about to embark on that part of the season when trans-Atlantic raids are going to become more common, can those within European racing's elite desist from condemning American racing's drug rules while simultaneously using the tired old "When in Rome" argument as soon as they hit Stateside?

There's really no way to have it both ways. It was interesting to note how Postulation didn't run with lasix in Saturday's Belmont Derby and no doubt it will be thrown back that the horse ran like it too. However the French trained Canndal ran medication free too and managed to finish runner up.

Generally speaking the French continue to show the way in this. Andre Fabre has consistently and successfully run horses drug free in the US so is entitled to his Gallic hauteur in professing to feel sorry for American trainers who insist they can't do their job without medication. This is the man after all who managed to win a Breeders Cup Classic with the relatively undistinguished Arcangues.

America's drug rules are a disgrace. But there's little credibility in haughty Euros turning their noses up at bullock-sized US trained horses coming over here if they then load up with race-day medication the first chance they get when travelling themselves.

But there are some things the Americans do get right: how long for instance would Oisin Murphy have got in the US, Australia, Hong Kong, or anywhere with interference rules that don't encourage jockeys to chance their arm, for his Saturday ride on Wind Fire in the Sandown sprint won by Waady?

The Kerry man got nine days which he immediately described as "fair." When jockeys employ such words after they've been suspended, it's usually due to a 'whew-got away it' sense of relief. Think Murphy has learned his lesson? He seems a bright young man, so yeah, he probably has.