CIGAR earned the accolade of "a great" yesterday as he led the International Classifications for the second year running.

America's equine superstar, who is now at stud at Coolmore's American base Ashford, became only the third horse to head the ratings in successive years by emulating Alleged and Ile de Bourbon.

His final rating of 135 is 3lbs higher than last year, despite a season in which his long winning sequence came to an end and he suffered defeat in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

The six-year-old, who retired with a record of 19 wins from 33 starts on dirt, ran about 10lbs below his best at Woodbine. But he earned his mark for weight carrying victories in the Citation and Don Handicaps.

Geoffrey Gibbs, chairman of the International Classifications Panel, compared Cigar with Forego, who topped America's ratings four years in succession from 1974 to 1977, Kelso and turf champion John Henry.

"Cigar put up a supreme performance in the Citation and he won the Don most convincingly carrying what for an American horse was a lot of weight," said Gibbs.

"It is not unreasonable to define him as one of the great horses. I think he deserves to be in there with those other champions."

Runaway Arc winner Helissio was crowned Europe's champion racehorse of 1996 yesterday in the International Classifications.

The French colt has earned an official rating of 134 to finish the year a pound clear of nearest rival Mark of Esteem, the leading British-based performer who heads the miling division.

But he is still a pound short of the mark attained by Cigar.

Helissio, who stays in training at four and will bid to match Cigar by challenging for the Dubai World Cup, is the joint highest-rated Arc winner of the last 10 years, matching the rating of Trempolino in 1987.

He is one of four horses rated 130 or over, all of them three-year-olds - the others are Mark of Esteem, Bosra Sham (131) and the American-trained Skip Away (130).

Geoffrey Gibbs, chairman of the panel of handicappers, reflected on an exciting season in which the practice of campaigning horses beyond their three-year-old careers is becoming more popular in Europe.

Zagreb's (trained by Dermot Weld) stunning six-length victory in the Budweiser Irish Derby has earned him the accolade of top three-year-old in this country's classifications with a rating of 125.

In the two-year-old division, dominated by Aidan O'Brien, Jim Bolger and Dermot Weld, the award goes to Mantovani (Bolger). He did not race again after his victory in the Group One Heinz 57 Phoenix Stakes at Leopardstown.

This country was blessed with two high class four-year-olds in Timarida and Oscar Schindler. They are rated joint-top on a mark of 124.