Are the prince's pair in a league of their own - or poles apart?

John Cobb, associate editor
As Racing Post Ratings testify, Arrogate has some way to go to match Frankel, whose best RPRs of 143, achieved in the Queen Anne Stakes and Juddmonte International, are 7lb ahead of Arrogate's top figure from the Breeders' Cup Classic. However, as a punter, I'd risk a few quid that after just eight races (and less than a year on the track) Bob Baffert's mighty grey would find the improvement.
It isn't just his brilliance – defeat of multiple top-grade winner California Chrome, with the rest of the Classic field nearly a dozen lengths behind proved that – nor just that he coped with the rain-drenched Meydan track and a journey around the outside of the field as well as halfway around the world, it is that will to win that would pull him upsides any rival, anywhere. And once he goes eyeball to eyeball there would be no backing down.

Tom Collins, tipster
Before the Dubai World Cup I would have said Frankel was in a league of his own but, after the best performance I have ever witnessed, I would have to be pushed to pick one of the Juddmonte superstars over the other. When Arrogate unexpectedly missed the kick before becoming the filling in a Keen Ice and Furia Cruzada sandwich, I tweeted that the winner of the Travers Stakes, which he won by 13½ lengths – shattering the 37-year-old track record in the process, would have to produce a career best to land the prize. He didn't just do that, he beat proven Group 1 performers doing handstands, just like Frankel, and there could still be a whole host of improvement to come from this lightly raced four-year-old.

Katherine Fidler, features editor
When Bob Baffert stated Arrogate was 'the dirt version of Frankel', I was incensed. They might carry the same silks, but they're not in the same league. Yet after lifting the veil of sentimentality and crunching some numbers, the idea is not as outrageous as first thought. Frankel beat 23 Group/Grade 1 winners, who between them scored at the highest level 50 times. Three months into his second season, Arrogate has beaten 17 fellow Grade 1 winners who have landed 35 top-flight races. Frankel's average winning distance was 5.4 lengths, Arrogate's is 4.6 lengths – impressive. They're both world champions. What clouds my judgement is the narrative attached to Frankel. Few want to see Frankel dethroned as the best of all time, and many thought he never would be. But in this post-truth era we should face facts. Arrogate still isn't Frankel's equal. Yet . . .