With the NH season just around the corner, I thought I would get a classic debate going- greatest nh horse of all time, chase hurdles, overall whatever.
My top chaser would be the star that is King kauto, though I did love denman, I'm going to throw in a controversial one with alderbrook for hurdler, and over both I'm going to with dawn run for ultimate versatility, just scraping night nurse. Also I'll have al capone II as the greatest french jumper. Any thoughts?

I have many favourite jumpers but best jumpers of all time could be hard to chose most of the older generation always say ARKLE if i had to pick a few from my lifetime so Far i would chose Kribenis as a hurdler Owned by flat owner Sheik Mohammed and Trained by Sir Michael Stoute
a flat trainer who won the truimph and champion hurdle with Kribenis cant remember now why the Career was so short as Chaser goes Desert Orchid was a machine but i like Pearlyman better just a pity Pearlymans career finished early Aswell.

Top 5 Hurdlers
1 Kribensis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf1EJz9qyCE Champion Hurdle win See you then was way behind he later won 3 Champion Hurdles and Deep Sensation was also in the field a top two mile chaser later in his Career.
2 See you Then
3 Night Nurse
4 Sea Pigeon
5 Birds Nest

top 5 Chasers

1 Pearlyman
2 Desert Orchid
3 Kauto Star
4 Bourrough Hill Lad
5 Party Politics

Not the best NH of all time, but my personal favourite NH horse of all time, was Rooster Booster

You must have won a lot on him to hold him in such high regard BazDev!

Istabraq is easily the best hurdler i've ever seen and my personal fav, and Kauto Star is the best chaser i've ever seen but not my fav.. that has to go to Florida Pearl, i absolutely loved that horse!

A horse who goes under the radar in the era of Arkle has to be Flyingbolt. This horse gave so much weight to his rivals and still won in a canter. Not sure if both was in the same yard, but they never raced against each other only on the gallops.

Officially 2 pounds below Arkle at there peak.

Arkle 212
Flyingbolt 210

Some 20+ pounds better than Kauto Star was at his best.

Hard to compare from generations to generations.

Both horses were trained by Tom Dreaper who wanted to keep them apart. According to Ted Walsh they probably would have met on the racetrack at some point if Flying Bolt hadn't contracted brucellosis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSr-pczh ... ure=relmfu

See You Then had really bad legs and couldn't take much racing at all. He won his Champion Hurdles from 1985-1987 and had only been seen on the track once or twice since '87. I think he broke down in his prep for the '88 Champion. He was well past his best by 1990 and was retired after the race.

Denman for me, bit sentimental but I loved him

He was much better then Kauto Star as a horse, just didn't achieve what Kauto did.

I don't think you can say he was better than kauto, he was a great horse and I loved him but I have to say kauto was much better- denman was a stayer whereas kauto was classy and good enough to be top rated over 2m,2m4 and 3m all in one season.

Has to be Challenger Du Luc for me, for making 'The Champ' A P McCoy look an absolute mug on more than one occasion. A terrific beast!

No mention of Red Rum yet! 3x winner of the National and one Scottish National. OK, a bit of a one course/race specialist, but what a record!

Denman has beat Kauto on 3 of the 4 times they have raced against each other, he has fell less times then Kauto (denman is a much better jumper) and he won the Hennessy off a mark that had never been.won of before. Incredible horse was Denman as is Kauto but Denman had his measure for me as proved by his superior dominance in there head to heads.

think you are a bit biased denman,hence your name Kauto was superior,the top 2 miler ,2 and a half,and 3miles +. He won the gold cup twice,regained! Denman only won it once, and his record in the king george says it all. sure Denman was a better jumper overall,kauto was more exuberant which caught him out occasionally.

Kauto was top class but it was a poor year when he was the top rated 2m chaser. Moscow would've lapped him

Istabraq and Moscow Flyer For Me

The Way Istabraq went about its Business

Moscow Flyer for Putting Azertyuiop in his place