Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe:Sea the Stars won his sixth Group One race in as many months to prove beyond doubt he is the best in the world with a stunning performance at Longchamp to take the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe this afternoon.
Backers of the 4-6favourite looked on through their fingers as Mick Kinane’s mount got boxed in early on, but their hands were in the air soon afterwards as he emerged from the chasing pack to eat up the ground on the leaders and coast past the post.
“(My heart) is still beating fairly slow, I think," trainer John Oxx joked afterwards. “It’s wonderful that it’s over - it’s just a great relief.
“It’s wonderful that he’s come through it. He was in a nice position and he just had to step up the gears a bit to get out.
“Mick would not panic because this horse has the gears.
“That’s what any jockey will tell you, if the horse has the speed and the gears he will get himself out of trouble.”
John Oxx's charge was very keen and lost ground in the early throes, prompting many observers to fear the worst.
Even approaching the top of the home turn, Kinane’s partner was engulfed behind a wall of horses - with Set Sail and Grand Ducal ensuring a generous pace from the head of affairs.
Once the gaps appeared, however, the race changed suddenly.
“I ended up in a position I maybe didn’t want to, but I didn’t want to risk firing him up," Kinane said. “They were going a nice pace and I knew I would need a bit of luck in the straight, no matter what happened, but I knew I had the pace to go anywhere I wanted.
“He’s a phenomenal horse.”
Stacelita went for the jugular inside the final 300 yards but Sea The Stars had all bases covered under his unflappable rider.
Exhibiting a jaw-dropping turn of foot, the Cape Cross colt carved his way through the field and thundered clear inside the final 200 yards to easily repel the challenge of the game Youmzain.
Sea The Stars has, incredulously, now won a Group One race in every month since May, when he scorched to victory in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.
Subsequent triumphs in the Epsom Derby and Coral-Eclipse soon followed, after which he headed to York for the Juddmonte International.
It was a similar outcome on the Knavesmire as the Christopher Tsui-owned maestro defeated Mastercraftsman by a length.
Next up was the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown, where he produced a clinical performance in dispatching the challenge of perennial bridesmaid Fame And Glory.
If the Irish Champion represented his hitherto most accomplished success, Sea The Stars’ victory in the Arc was easily his most important - and arguably his most dramatic.
Such is the fiery strength in depth within the European showpiece, it is easy to understand how upwardly-mobile animals can occasionally stall in the
Parisian suburbs.
Thanks to Sea The Stars’ unparalleled magnificence, even when the chips are down, racing purists not once had cause for concern.
No other horse has ever secured the Guineas, Derby and Arc treble. Then again, Sea The Stars is unlike any other horse we have seen before.