General / Graham Cunningham / 09 October 2009 / Leave a comment

His Breeders' Cup price may be drifting on Betfair, but GC is desperate to see Sea The Stars do his stuff stateside.

"Sea The Stars felt better than ever in his work before the Arc and his performance hardly suggested that he is going off the boil."

Sea The Stars is a true great......but BC glory would make him greater still

Sea The Stars was his usual ruthless self in making it six championship races in as many months in Paris

But why the rush among many a commentator to pension him off without showing the Americans what he can do in the Breeders' Cup Classic?

Michael Kinane insists that Sea The Stars felt better than ever in his work before the Arc and his performance hardly suggested that he is going off the boil.

What's more, the shorter distance of the Classic is arguably perfect for STS and the small matters of a $5m purse and the resultant boost in his stud profile in America shouldn't be underestimated.

Many of the retire him now brigade take the view that it is just asking too much for a horse who has seen demanding European Group 1 action during every calendar month since May to peak yet again in the heat of BC action at Santa Anita.

Of course it is, lads. Why, you have to go all the way back to............last year to find a horse who did the same.

Raven's Pass contested six Group 1 contests in Britain and France before mastering his old rival Henrythenavigator in last year's Classic.

No definite decision about STS will be made for a while yet and if connections detect that enough is enough then good luck to them.

But what if the wonder colt keeps blazing up the gallops with all his old fire? John Oxx was known to be very keen on an American adventure prior to Paris.

And the Betfair layers who are prepared to offer [4.0] and bigger about Sea The Stars completing the sort of Magnificent Seven even Hollywood would find hard to script could be in for a nervy ride if he starts showing the right signs again.

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This is one Brucie bonus we can well do without

Lastly, you may have noticed a fascinating piece in the Racing Post this week relating to what the future ought to hold for Sea The Stars.

Under the heading of "Sea The Stars should get the chance to combine two duties" it covered assorted bases but centred around the belief that John Oxx's horse of a lifetime should combine stallion duty with a spell of Group 1 globetrotting in 2010.

It also raised the bizarre suggestion that, "Flat horses shouldn't retire until they are at least eight" and underpinned the plan for STS's proposed new dual career as stud and superstar by saying: "You're not telling me Usain Bolt goes without while going about the business of winning golds and smashing world records."

Now if these golden nuggets had emanated from the pen of the RP's resident Jack The Lad sports punter Steve Palmer I would have grinned and taken them as mere tongue in cheek banter from someone with only a passing interest in racing.

But the fact that they were written by the man charged with steering racing's trade paper through some very choppy waters in the next year or two potentially puts a wholly different complexion on things.

Of course, it could be that I just misread the emphasis of Thursday's piece and that the Post's head honcho Bruce Millington was merely pulling our legs all along.

Please tell us you were taking the mick, Bruce. You were, weren't you?

Tags: Graham Cunningham, horseracing betting, Santa Anita races, Sea The Stars, The Breeders' Cup Classic