Hype. An accusation flung at an ever hungry media as regularly as that same media bombards it back. In the racing sense it's launched a few times a season in the guise of race of the year, race of the decade or race of the century: take your pick but the next one will be arriving at a station near you. Sometimes misleading but always banal. Except maybe for today. Today could be different.

Today could see the media searching for superlatives and finding them hopelessly inadequate. Today's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes really does look that good.

Few other races in the world could afford to treat horses of the calibre of Predappio, Shantou and Swain as welcome but largely superfluous extras but this afternoon's Ascot showpiece can.

That attitude may come back to haunt at the end of the mile and a half stalk through Berkshire but, right now, it's hard to escape the conclusion that it will be another trio, Helissio, Singspiel and Pilsudski, who will battle it out at the finish. It's no exaggeration to say it could be a finish to decide who is the best thoroughbred in the world.

Americans used to the circular sameness of racing on dirt may quibble but not too loudly. In a game often reduced in the past to a glorified game of profit and loss, monopoly with immature adolescent three-year-olds as pieces, Helissio, Singspiel and Pilsudski now seem an even more remarkable group of battle-hardened and complete athletes. Ask them to show their medals and prepare to be dazzled.

A World Cup, a Japan Cup and a Coronation Cup for Singspiel, a globetrotter of such aptitude he could donate air miles to Alan Whicker. A Breeders Cup and an Eclipse for the Meath-bred Pilsudski whose dogged determination has taken him from three-year-old handicapper to true world class. And then there's France's Helissio. A year younger but already with an Arc, a Ganay and two Grand Prix de St Clouds in the bag.

All champions in their own right, all with form that gives them the beating of each other and yet it's Helissio - who won the Arc with such ease his rider Olivier Peslier could afford to imitate the Mick Channon soccer windmill through the final furlong - who hints at even greater things to come.

Things that could see us shifting parameters and start to compare his massive bay form to the immortals and finding the comparisons favourable. Perhaps that too is hype but Helissio's is a talent to dream of. Cash Asmussen's more down-to-earth task today is to steer that talent. It's intriguing though to know that Asmussen, despite the imposing burden of expectation, will be dreaming too.

"I want to tell ya," he drawls with the desert of his native Texas still redolent, "it takes a bit to move me but this race does. I don't want to sound pretentious but I've been in this game for 18 years, had 18,000 rides, almost 3,000 winners and 75 Group One winners but it's this that keeps me interested.

"I know I'm not in the rocking chair yet and the rent is paid but the adrenalin that a race like this produces is what makes me keep the weight down and get up in the morning when the alarm goes off. This is the difference between doing what you love to do and doing a job."

A typical fast-talking Cash soundbite. Colourful, enthusiastic but with a reminder of his worth. A true individual. What other rider would be thankful of being inches over the average jockey height because it allows him to "go into a restaurant without being immediately spotted as a goddam jockey."

That same height has sometimes seemed to act like a beacon for drawing criticism around his head, no more so than when riding for Vincent O'Brien in the late 1980s. But the Texan treated the catcalls with disdain. No hiding and no regrets for the man from Laredo.

His distinctively quiet but subtle style in the saddle may not be to the taste of the gung-ho merchants weaned on the whip-flashing beauty of a Piggott or an Eddery. But Asmussen's big-race record since first arriving in France in 1982 compares with most and pales many.

A record that includes winning an Arc on Suave Dancer and five French riding titles stands by itself but racing's reality is that the top jockeys are judged on the big races. Win and you're a hero; lose and you're a bum, whatever you're record.

Asmussen's mind is too quick not to realise that if Helissio fails today, the urge for many will be to point the finger at him. Peslier and Helissio became an identifiable partnership. The "Oh, Peslier would have won on him" brigade will be out in force if Asmussen's second ride on the colt is not successful too. Asmussen knew it the first time in last month's Grand Prix de St Cloud and knows it now.

"It goes with the territory," he says. "I've had it all in the past. Usually the only excuse is that the other horse is faster but people don't like to hear that. There was added pressure at St Cloud though. The horse had had a layoff and although Elie Lelouche (Helissio's trainer) felt he was back to his best, you can never know for certain and I was the only new man on the team.

"If we'd got beat, it would have been like me being on the two-yard line with the field wide open and I drop the touchdown pass."

The game plan today is simple: be adaptable. "If you're asking me what will be in my head, I'm sure some people will say nothing," Asmussen laughs.

When pressed he admits: "A race can change shape every two furlongs so you can't have a set plan but what I will be thinking about are the best tactics for my horse and the best tactics for the opposition. Thinking about pressure or whatever can wait until afterwards."

If today's race comes down to adaptability, Asmussen believes he's on a winner. "What this horse has got is a cruising speed. He quickens but the cruising speed is a big strength. If I want to, I can let him use his stride from the front, or if someone goes off very quickly I'll sit back," he says.

"I don't like comparing horses but Helissio must be rated with the best I've seen, never mind ridden. He's a man of a horse but a gentleman too," he says.

A horse to justify the hype? "He could be," replies Asmussen before adding: "But God knows, every horse in the race is a star."

Bank on Helissio to shine brightest.