America may be a Stars' step too far.

Byline: Keith Hamer

CONNECTIONS of Sea The Stars are likely to decide in two weeks' time whether the 'Usain Bolt of the equine world' will bid for a magnificent seven top level wins in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Trainer John Oxx has hinted a trip to America may just be one race too many for the colt, who took his unbeaten tally to six Group One victories this season in the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp on Sunday.

"The horse is fine, he came home a little later than expected but he ate up all his feed and although he is a little tired from the journey, he is otherwise fine," said the Currabeg trainer.

"A rider will sit up on him tomorrow and we will canter him on Wednesday. My gut instinct is that after the hard season the horse has had, with six races in six months, America is probably a step too far but we haven't ruled it out.

"He's an exceptional horse and he was fresher yesterday than at any point in the season. While he has gone in his coat a bit, there is still plenty of racing in him. It's two weeks before we have to make an entry for him and a decision will be made around that time.

"The Breeders' Cup was originally only a fall-back in case the ground came up soft in France, but I would have no fears about the surface there. He has plenty of Polytrack experience on the Curragh and I think he would love the surface and bounce off it."

Sea The Stars' record of winning the 2000 Guineas, Derby, Eclipse, Juddmonte International, Irish Champion and the Arc is second to none.

"Mill Reef and Dancing Brave were the closest to mirror his record, but both got beaten in one race. At the end of the day, nobody can know which horse is best," Oxx went on. "After 300 years of selective breeding of thoroughbreds, he is the ultimate that can produced by a breeder. As a physical specimen, he is the Usain Bolt of the equine world - you couldn't hope to breed a better horse. It is temperament that separates the good horses from the great horses."

The voice of racing Sir Peter O'Sullevan, who saw his first Arc in 1945, was among the Longchamp crowd and he hailed Sea The Stars' achievement.

"It was a great privilege to have been there. I felt it was an utterly exceptional performance as for the first time in his career, the atmosphere really got to him," he said. "Mick (Kinane) had to exercise all his renowned horsemanship to get him to settle. I have not seen an Arc won by a horse that got in that sort of situation. I can understand the ratings, but he put up a much better performance and it was remarkable really." Sea The Stars' official rating of 135 has been left unchanged for the time being. Oxx remarked: "Mick said that the horse's best performance was at Leopardstown but he thought he was even better yesterday.

"He can only be rated on what he beat on the day. The pace was very in and out and the pacemakers were meaningless. If the race had been run at a frantic pace, the distances would have been greater.

"The even pace that we got at York and Leopardstown wasn't there yesterday. In any case, the horse never wins his races by very far."

The British Horseracing Authority's head of handicapping Phil Smith only gave him a figure of 131 for his latest performance, 10lb below that achieved by Dancing Brave in winning the French showpiece in 1986. "In terms of the rating, we've left him on 135 which was the mark we had him performing to in the Irish Champion Stakes," said Smith.

"We looked at the Arc and we have two pretty solid yardsticks in there in Youmzain and Conduit and we have them both performing to 125. So we've gone through them and we have said the winning distance was worth 6lb so we've given Sea The Stars a performance figure of 131.

"That is all he needed to do to win the race and I suspect if something had come out of the pack and challenged him, he'd have gone further away."

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CELEBRATION Sea The Stars back at John Oxx's stables in Curragh, with his groom, John Hynes.