The only task harder than reaching the summit is staying there. Can anyone remember who was the best horse around last spring?

Well, it was Gladiatorus, who ended the season on a mark of 125, which made him joint-seventh in the World Thoroughbred Rankings alongside Cavalryman, Conduit, Gio Ponti and Youmzain.

This left Gladiatorus 11lbs adrift of Sea The Stars but that was still too lofty a perch for betting pundit John McCririck, who apparently took the handicappers to task for “over-rating the talking horse of the year, Gladiatorus”, but that is being somewhat unfair to both man and horse. A talking horse is one who impresses on the gallops but palpably fails to deliver on the track and no-one can say that about Gladiatorus.

He was, briefly, the highest-rated horse in the world so, whatever you think of him, there were some actions to back up those words – or ratings.

That came with his victory in the Group One Dubai Duty Free at Nad Al Sheba on World Cup night. Beforehand it was reasonable to make some sort of case for most of the field, and yet Gladiatorus trounced them with a relentless display of galloping. Having set strong fractions early on he never looked like being caught in the straight and the enduring memory is of his jockey, Ahmed Ajtebi, standing up in the irons and celebrating yards from the line, which meant that the final winning margin over Presvis – three and a quarter lengths – was less flattering than it might have been.

However, there was nothing flattering about the performance with a winning time that was over a second faster than the track standard and the visual proof that those horses, Archipenko, Vodka and Jay Peg, who had tried to lie up with the early pace finished well down the field.

It is hard to merely dismiss this as a freak performance because two months earlier, and following a 15-month absence, Gladiatorus had broken a track record off a handicap mark of 108, and then won a Group Two by five and three-quarter lengths.

All three were front-running performances, as had been the case when Gladiatorus had been trained in Italy, and were achieved by local trainer Mubarak Bin Shafya, but there was little reason to suppose that the switch to Newmarket and the Godolphin yard would have any detrimental effect. However, what followed last summer and autumn baffled most observers and, probably, even those within Godolphin’s inner circle.

Gladiatorus started as favourite for the Group One Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot and also broke from the gate like a scalded cat, but finished nearly 20 lengths behind the winner. This set the pattern for his dismal runs in both the Prix Jacques le Marois and the Prix du Moulin. However, he then went on to win a Group One in Italy, where he simply outclassed his field, but then finished the season on another low note when trailing in ninth of 11 behind Goldikova in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita.

In theory this race should have played to his strengths, with a speed-friendly track and a two-turn mile. However, the mixture of a wide draw and a speed duel with Cowboy Cal, who finished 10th, did for Gladiatorus.

So what can be deduced from all of that? Suggesting that Gladiatorus is “the talking horse of the year” flies in the face of the form and the validity of the rating he earned in Dubai, so then the question for Godolphin is to piece together just what it takes for this horse to produce his best and, with 10 wins (including three Group races) from 17 starts, his best could be well worth finding.

It may be that the warm climate of Dubai brought out the best in him, in which case it would be interesting to see what happens if Gladiatorus makes an appearance during the Dubai International Racing Carnival, which starts on January 28th. He could be worth another chance.

Although the World Thoroughbred Rankings showed that Godolphin were still further off the pace than they would have liked, there were signs of hope from the juvenile division, where both Passion For Gold and Vale Of York figured prominently, but they could also draw some comfort from the success of Sea The Stars, who was sired by Cape Cross, one of Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stud stallions.

Cape Cross, who sired 29 individual black type performers in 2009, finished the season as second in the sire’s table, which is the best performance by a Darley stallion in the last 10 years.

The summit is within reach.

Paul Wheeler