Sprinter Sacre has impressed all lucky enough to have watched him run this season and, it seems, none more so than the official handicapper who has given the great one a rating of 188, making him the top chaser in the recent Anglo-Irish Jump classifications.
Nicky Henderson's outstanding seven-year-old is now just 2lb shy of the 190 reached by Kauto Star in the 2009-10 season, the highest rating in the 14 years of classifications.
The now-retired Kauto Star was also the top chaser for the fourth and final time 12 months ago, but by then hisb rating had slipped to 180.
Sprinter Sacre, who put in top performances in the two-mile and two-and-a-half-mile category, is 8lb ahead of the next best, his stablemate and Chel-tenham Gold Cup star Bobs Worth.
Hurricane Fly, who regained the Champion Hurdle crown, is on the 175 mark, which makes him the second-best hurdler in classification history, 1lb behind Istabraq.
Willie Mullins' gelding was 1lb ahead of the supreme staying hurdler Big Buck's, who only ran once last season because of injury and has now been rated 174 for five years in a row.
Our Conor, trained by Dessie Hughes, has been awarded the highest ever rating for a juvenile hurdler with a mark of 161. That mark eclipses the previous best set by Alan King's Katchit.
BHA handicapper John de Moraville said: "When Sprinter Sacre was a novice, he was rated 169, which was a record, and he more than lived up to expectations. He's the highest two-mile chaser in the classifications. He was breathtaking at Cheltenham and Aintree, less so at Punchestown but still ran to 178, which is still excellent."
*Trainer Richard Hannon has ruled Olympic Glory out of Saturday's Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh. The Group 1-winning juvenile returned to action this year with a win in the Greenham Stakes at Newbury but could not get involved in the French Guineas at Longchamp having been drawn wide.
The plan had been to run him in Ireland this weekend but that has now been shelved as Hannon has decided the race will come too soon.
He will still be represented by Havana Gold and Van Der Neer, who did well in the French and English Guineas respectively.
Hannon said: "There are only 12 days between the two classics, and we have decided that Olympic Glory needs more time. He could never get into a rhythm from that draw at Longchamp but he still had to travel to France and back and it takes a lot out of a horse."
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