NEW YORK -- The fans cheered Mineshaft as he entered the track at Belmont Park before another effortless victory, this time in the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup on Saturday.

What they didn't realize was that Mineshaft may have run the last race of his career. Owner William S. Farish said his 4-year-old colt has nothing more to prove and was seriously considering keeping him out of the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.

"This has been the target, and he's had a hard, hard campaign," Farish said of the Gold Cup. "We'll see about the Breeders' Cup. I don't think this horse has anything more to prove."

With his third straight dominating Grade I win, Mineshaft probably clinched Horse of the Year no matter what reigning champion Azeri does the rest of the year.

Right now, there's not a thoroughbred better than Mineshaft, who came into the Gold Cup off easy victories in the Suburban Handicap and Woodward Stakes.

"I've never had a horse jog by the crowd, particularly here in New York, and get an ovation," said Farish, the United States ambassador to Great Britain. "It's quite a thrill."

A son of 1992 Horse of the Year A.P. Indy, Mineshaft has won nine of 11 races since returning to the United States last November from Europe, where he won just one of seven races on the turf. This year, he's dodged no opponent in winning seven of nine starts with two runner-up finishes -- one by a head to Perfect Drift in the Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs, another to Balto Star in the Whirlaway at the Fair Grounds.

"We laid out our course and invited other horses in the country to come," Farish said. "In the last few races, they've gone in the other direction."

Mineshaft won the Gold Cup by 4 1/4 lengths, beating four mediocre rivals. In the Woodward, he also beat a field of four less-than-stellar challengers.

Recently, it was announced Mineshaft would be retired at the end of the year to Farish's Lane's End Farm and command a stud fee of $100,000.