Everyone in racing thinks the world of American Pharoah, and why wouldn’t they? Even if he never races again, he will have been a champion at 2 and 3, a Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer, and, of course, the first winner of the American Triple Crown in 37 years. It is almost impossible to direct too many superlatives his way. Almost. The two most prominent British handicapping outfits, The Racing Post and Timeform, took their assessment of American Pharoah to a giddy level after the colt won the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on Aug. 2. Timeform raised his overall rating to 136, the highest for any American racehorse since Cigar in 1994. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” said Mark Milligan, Timeform’s handicapper for American racing, “were he to finish the year having surpassed Cigar’s 138 and become Timeform’s most highly rated North American horse ever.” The Racing Post, which rates races rather than individuals and uses a different scale that is supposed to translate to handicap weights, gave the Haskell a rating of 131, three pounds ahead of Shared Belief’s San Antonio and seven pounds better than Honor Code’s Met Mile and Whitney. “With a 7 lb. gap between American Pharoah and Honor Code,” wrote Sam Walker, The Racing Post’s international-rating columnist, “we could be looking at another 3- to 5-length win for The Big AP if they both lined up for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.” With all due respect to American Pharoah, this is malarkey. It confuses a historic achievement with pure talent. Just because American Pharoah won the Triple Crown that eluded so many others, he is not automatically a “better” horse than Spectacular Bid, Sunday Silence, or other Hall of Famers who won “only” two of the classics. Maybe “The Big AP” will indeed win the Classic by daylight, but to say his Haskell puts him five lengths in front of Honor Code, or that it was the best performance in American racing in 21 years, makes no objective sense. Does anyone truly believe that Keen Ice, who was beaten 2 1/4 lengths in the Haskell and sports a career record of 1 for 11, ran one of the best races of the last two decades and is of roughly the same quality as Curlin, Ghostzapper, Rachel Alexandra, or Zenyatta? By any logical standard, the Aug. 8 Whitney was a better race than the Haskell, and that is no knock whatsoever on American Pharoah. The Whitney field was much stronger, and the adjusted time was better, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 113 as opposed to a 109 for the Haskell. That does not mean Honor Code is better than American Pharoah, who was clearly geared down at the end of the Haskell. Honor Code, however, defeated six Grade 1 winners in the Whitney. American Pharoah beat Keen Ice and Upstart and recorded a lower Beyer than half of the last 20 Haskell winners. Yes, he could have run faster, but you don’t call a performance the best in two decades because of a “coulda.” Let’s not forget that American Pharoah is only a 3-year-old. The best 4-year-old often beats the best 3-year-old – even if that sophomore is a great one. The 4-year-old Seattle Slew beat the 3-year-old Affirmed twice. The 4-year-old Affirmed beat the 3-year-old Spectacular Bid. These outcomes did not diminish the defeated 3-year-olds one iota. One of the tantalizing things about American Pharoah is that we may yet to have seen his best. Other than the Kentucky Derby, where he was in complete control but was more professional than dazzling, his victories this year have been cakewalks. He’s that much better than his rivals, and he has the potential to run faster if the day comes when he needs to. That day would come in the Classic, where 24 of the last 25 winners have run a Beyer of 110 or better, one point above American Pharoah’s career best. American Pharoah may well prove to be the better horse, but not because the Haskell was better than the Whitney, much less the greatest performance in two decades.