A trip to Australia remains up in the air for English sprint star Lethal Force, beaten by Moonlight Cloud in France on Sunday.

Trainer Clive Cox said he was proud of his stable star's effort against the mare, who won the Group One Prix Maurice de Gheest (1300m) at Deauville for the third time, and would continue to take his program one race at a time.

"He's lost nothing in defeat, he's run very well and I'm very pleased with him," Cox said.

"It was run in a course record time and the ground was only just good so he's run a very brave race.

"At the end he was just beaten by a very good filly who was winning the race for the third time.

"As I have always said, we are taking it one race at a time and we will continue to do so.

"It is an honour to have been invited to Australia but it is an enormous ask for the horse and we will wait and see how he comes out of this before making plans.

"Adam (Kirby) just felt he wasn't quite as good as he was at Newmarket. We were happy to come, don't get me wrong. We're very pleased with him but obviously we'd have preferred to have won."

"We'll just see how he comes out of this before making any plans, we'll get him home and take it from there.

"The winner is a special filly."

The winner of the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and the July Cup, Lethal Force has been touted as a possible runner in the Patinack Farm Stakes at Flemington in November.

The race is part of the Global Sprint Challenge and a win in France would have set him up for a $1 million bonus as part of that series for winning three designated racs in three different countries.

There is still an incentive with another $600,000 on offer if a horse can win the Patinack Farm in addition to another of the series races overseas.