Personally I have Winx above Frankel, mostly because of her longevity. It's certainly hard to argue with any confidence in favour of one over another based on hard facts. Had Frankel extended his unbeaten run for as long as Winx has there is no doubt he would rate better than her (and it would be unanimous to boot), but that would mean he'd have had to win another 15-20 races in a row at the top level without skipping a beat. That really would have been something to see.
While it's easy to demean Happy Clapper, it's worth looking at Happy Clapper's record if that tart Winx had never drawn breath (okay I know that's not how it works, but remove Winx from his form and it reads thus):
1st Villiers Stakes (G2)
1st Doncaster Hcp (G1)
1st Tramway Hcp (G2)
1st George Main (G1)
1st Epsom Hcp (G1)
1st Canterbury Stks (G1)
1st George Ryder (G1)
1st Doncaster Hcp (G1)
1st Apollo Stks (G2)
1st Chipping Norton (G1)
Not quite all-time-champion material, but that's an amazing sans-Winx record. In fact I think I've been positively underrating him.
Reminds me a little of a horse called Been There who knocked up running second to champions, and would have been a much bigger deal in their absence
