Who would have been "great"?

[Bid]

A comment on another thread brought up a question. What horses would have been considered great if they didn't run at the same time as an all time great. DDT mentioned General Assembly having to deal with Bid. Same goes for the Paster who today would probably win everything in sight w/o Bid standing in the way. Sham is another that might be better remembered. Would he have won the TC w/o Red?
Also is it just me that thinks most of the overhyped horese today would be also-rans back then?

[Bid]

Typo- that's horses

[bdw0617]

Gallant Man comes to mind in as a horse that could not have picked the worst year to be born.

I think the top shelf of horses in this decade can run with anyone in history. Ghostzapper, curlin, point given, invasor. Past that.... I don't know. we had a thread about 6 months ago that proved just how highly I think of ghostzapper

[steward]

I don't think that either General Assembly or Sham would have been "great" under any circumstances. The former is a complete non-starter as far as the discussion goes. The latter would have been humiliated later in the year by the older bunch that was a lot tougher than those miserable also rans which populated the 3 yo classics in 1973, especially the Preakness and the Belmont. And, as Haskin reminded us in a column a few weeks ago, Prove Out even slaughtered Forego among the other horses he dominated in the fall (8/24/73).

Just look at Sham's Derby and Preakness on video. He was toyed with by Secretariat, and never really threatened. His rep is one of the most overblown in racing history, imo.

[tmacew]

The ultimate answer, or non-answer, given as he is already considered one of the greats, is Alydar. It is hard to decide if both Affirmed and Alydar's historical judgement is helped or hurt by the other. Affirmed is always mentioned in the same breath as Alydar, somewhat minimizing his accomplishments to some degree. And it is a pretty sure bet to say that Alydar would have been a TC Champion without his rival. But then again, maybe the whole is greater than the parts, as they both have a hallowed place in history together.

[mary]

Not in the business, but it seems like a lot of it is based on hype on marketing nowadays.

[summerhorse]

Sham and Alydar. Barbaro, Smarty Jones and Afleet Alex in the might have been catagory.