I don't know enough about the stud market to definitively opine on this, but it seems to me that just as a matter of common sense, Fager's got to be right about this. Just as a perception issue, "brilliant flash in the pan who had a streak of 4 great races but never was as good before or after" isn't going to be as attractive to breeders as "unambiguously the greatest horse of his generation who ran one brilliant race after another once he got good".
Especially given everything we know about our sport re: doping and the like.
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