No doubt about it, Point Given was the kind of horse that made your heart leap up. So when his injury and subsequent retirement were announced Aug. 31, a great gloom descended on the sport that thought it had finally, at last, produced a star that would continue to thrill people.

Wrong again.

The trend toward these early, disheartening departures should have become clear. Last year's "great 3-year-old," Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus, headed for the breeding shed after nine races. The 1999 champion, Charismatic, managed a total of 17 career starts before breaking down in the Belmont Stakes.

In fact, the 1990s presents a pretty bleak picture of 3-year-old champions with short shelf lives. A.P. Indy, the 1992 champ, was retired after 11 starts; Holy Bull (1994) made 16 starts; Point Given's sire, Thunder Gulch, bade us farewell after 16 races. Skip Away (1996 champion, 38 career starts), Unbridled (1990, 24 career starts), and Silver Charm (1997, 24 career starts) rank as comparative models of immense hardihood.

Fortunately, last year's 3-year-old champion and 2000 Horse of the Year, Tiznow, is still racing, though sparingly; he's made 13 starts thus far in his 17 months of competition.

It is no news that economics plays a huge role in the decisions to withdraw our stars from competition--economics, combined with what is apparently an inherent inability of these horses to stand training. Some of these early retirees could have been rested, repaired, and returned to action, but the lure of large stud fees for them stood in the way. Others of these young horses found the rigors of competition so physically beyond them they could never have raced again even if their owners so desired. As a result, off they went, to disperse their various abilities and liabilities into the Thoroughbred gene pool.

History tells us Point Given won't be the last one. It becomes clear that it's almost time to say "goodbye" as soon as we've learned to say "hello" to them.

This disheartening situation was brought into sharp focus for me recently while researching a book on one of my old equine heroes, Round Table (to be published by Eclipse Press in the spring of 2002). He had a career that today seems almost unfathomable.

Round Table raced for four years. He made 66 starts, winning 43. Our last four 3-year-old champions--I am awarding that title to Point Given in advance of the balloting--made fewer starts than Round Table combined (Point Given, 13; Tiznow, 13 to date; Charismatic, 17; Real Quiet, 20).

Round Table was in training steadily for almost four years. He sat out four months at five with a quarter crack, yet made 14 starts that year, winning nine and setting or equaling five track records.

At two, Round Table won five of 10 races; at three, 15 of 22; and at four, 14 of 20. He carried 130 pounds or more 25 times, winning 17 times.

These exploits earned Round Table the 1958 Horse of the Year title, the grass championship in three straight years (1957-59), and the handicap horse title in '58. Before embarking on a successful stud career at Claiborne, Round Table set or equaled 16 records--11 on dirt, five on grass. In one sequence near the end of his career, Round Table carried 132 pounds and set an American record on turf, then two weeks later carried 132 and set a track record on dirt. Considered in the context of contemporary runners, this résumé seems to border on the mythological.

As much as I admired him, I don't believe Point Given can be described as a great horse. He never broke a track record, never carried more than 126 pounds, never competed in a handicap or faced older horses, and only had 13 career starts. His credentials do not qualify him for greatness, which to my mind is defined by sustained brilliance in testing competition.

The potential for greatness was in Point Given. The physical constitution required to display that greatness was not. That's what made this tremendously exciting colt's injury and departure so hurtful.

So many of our recent champions have this in common: they were fast, but they couldn't last.

I guess we should be used to this by now.