Graham Thorpe emerged bright-eyed into the sunlight at Eden Gardens yesterday. He looked fit, he exuded candour and he offered reason to believe that he was intent once more on regaining his status as England's foremost batsman It went way beyond his recovery from a dose of dodgy tummy. It went way beyond his recovery from a dose of dodgy tummy. Barely a month ago, Thorpe departed overnight from the Test match leg of England's tour of India. I give you firstly Irish ace Garry O'Gorman, who put forward Galileo and Imagine 12 months ago.

"Milan will be the champion middle distance horse," Gorman said, "Hawk Wing will make it easy for Ballydoyle to send Johannesburg to the Kentucky Derby rather than the Guineas, and Quarter Moon would have a serious chance in the Oaks."Britain's Matthew Tester, the two-year-old expert, goes for one golden girl and one colt of a darker hue. What we really want to know is what to follow this year and who better to act as guides than two of the men who can wear hooded zip-up jackets with real style. The same can be said for the St Leger; Milan (125) was the best winner of the oldest Classic in more than a decade. This year he will be in the ring with last season's overall heavyweight, Sakhee.If fear of being poached by Godolphin is tending to keep British juveniles under wraps, another factor from the Dubai-based outfit, that of keeping top middle-distance horses in training at four and beyond and campaigning them worldwide, has rather spoiled us and for all his wide-margin brilliance in the Arc and York International and that agonising near-miss in the Breeders' Cup Classic, Sakhee (133) is not – yet – as good as Dubai Millennium (134) or Daylami (135).But all these figures are merely recording the past. Despite his overwhelming victories in the Epsom and Curragh Derbies, Galileo, at 129, has emerged both as a lesser athlete than his immediate predecessor Sinndar, who earned 133, and the mighty American champion Point Given (130), the top three-year-old of 2001 after winning two legs of the US Triple Crown and three other Grade One races.Galileo is, though, a thoroughly above-average Derby winner and a welcome confirmation of the Blue Riband's reviving status. They provide a talking point in bars and a selling point for a potential stallion, even if it is on the lines of "champion three-year-old in Italy over six and a half furlongs on a wet Wednesday".But they also provide, with the brush of Monet rather than Rockwell, the means to place horses on time's pantheon. Then come three 119ers, Rock of Gibraltar, Dubai Destination and Captain Rio, and a pair on 117, High Chaparral and France's leading juvenile Act One.In detail, though, ratings are only an interpretation, a transmogrification of the beauty of a galloping racehorse into dry statistics and, as such, can be damned lies.

The percentage of ?te runners trained in this country is falling in all age groups, with the disparity most notable among the youngest generation. The latest edition, the judgements on the classes of 2001, were revealed yesterday and made official that Johannesburg was the best two-year-old in the world last year; Galileo was the best European three-year-old; Sakhee was more brilliant than his stablemate Fantastic Light; and that the Classic fillies and milers were not much cop. The statistics also confirm something else that has been a creeping suspicion for a few years now, that Britain is no longer the centre of the thoroughbred universe. Ratings, the beloved of sports anoraks, do, largely, confirm only what gut feeling tells us. Flat racing's annual statfest is the International Classifications, by which the senior handicappers from Britain, Ireland and beyond grade the top performers. When Stewart faced Baltimore in the regular season, he threw a career-best 333 yards against them in a flawless performance.Now, with the stakes raised, comes the real test. If he prevails, the restoration of Kordell Stewart will be complete.. I just needed to go back and get the old Kordell."The Ravens thrive on breaking quarterback hearts and bodies.