IRISH DERBY JOHN OXX:Having one of the most valuable racehorses in the world in his yard is all in a day's work for John Oxx, writes BRIAN O'CONNOR
BEING IN charge of the most valuable racehorse in the world isn’t keeping John Oxx from his sleep these nights, although he could be forgiven a little restlessness at the sort of ground dilemma that still makes Sea The Stars a less than definite starter in tomorrow’s Irish Derby. Funnily enough, though, the Curragh trainer has noticed he is waking up earlier in the morning.
“But then maybe that’s old age!” he laughs.
There’s an ease to the quip that hints at the pay-off to such early starts. When a colt like Sea The Stars is outside, peering over a stable door and hollering for his grub, it must be difficult not to bounce out of bed.
Estimates as to how much Sea The Stars is worth right now fluctuate dramatically. A figure of €50 million has been bandied around, but there are plenty who will tell you that such a price is conservative with an extra large “C”. Others venture that double that might not be enough to buy him.
The reasons are simple enough. As a racehorse, this hulking brute of a colt has already done enough to suggest he is one of the true greats of the modern era. Just three weeks ago he became the first horse for 20 years to complete the 2,000 Guineas-Derby double at Epsom. That he did so in a manner that suggests his best may be yet to come only emphasised the suspicion we are looking at a truly exceptional talent.
However, even if he wins tomorrow’s Irish Derby by a furlong, it probably won’t affect his intrinsic value much. That’s because as a half-brother to Galileo – himself a dual-Derby winner in 2001 but, more importantly, currently the world’s most lucrative stallion – Sea The Stars is a potential goldmine that runs on hay and water.
Such considerations, however, don’t impinge on his trainer’s thoughts. What happens after Sea The Stars finishes racing is not his problem.
During it, though, Oxx is the man with his hand firmly on the steering wheel. Right now the greatest challenge of all is to get this remarkable young athlete to deliver on all that talent. Come next winter, the worst thing of all will be to have some “what if’s” hanging over his head. It’s easy, then, to understand Oxx’s determination not to risk the horse on unsuitable ground.
That’s the flipside of having Sea The Stars in your yard: the pressure not to mess up. Oxx might already have had a parade of champions through his Currabeg stables during the last three decades, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel that pressure just as much.
“It’s primarily a responsibility, training any horse. That’s why when they pass the post in the front the main emotion you feel is relief: that they’ve done what you hoped and expected they would do.
“My responsibility is to have everything in place to allow them perform. If you want to call that responsibility pressure, then it’s pressure. But to me, at this stage, it’s work, what I’m paid to do,” he says.
Such a perspective is typical of the man who will be 59 in just over a fortnight. The slight figure doesn’t appear substantially different to how he did when he first took out a licence to succeed his father in 1979. But it’s not just physically that Oxx presents a reassuring constancy.
A resolute determination to maintain perspective on the horse game’s heaving tide of opinion and fashion has run through his last 30 years. Never one to get carried away, whether the subject be beast or man, he remains a rock of sound thinking in what can be a ruthlessly self-interested industry. And yet there doesn’t seem to be much doubt that Sea The Stars has managed to smuggle a way underneath his trainer’s skin.
More than once this season, Oxx has described Sea The Stars as a “great horse”. Without wishing to get all “Dunphyesque” about the inflections that can be put on the word “great”, the phrase is significant. Oxx uses words with a care often lacking among some colleagues who prefer a more scattergun approach.
We are talking about a man who guided true champions like Sinndar, Azamour, Ridgewood Pearl and Alamshar, and didn’t start tossing superlatives around until he had the perspective of their whole careers in front of him. But this horse has always been a little different.
“He has everything. He can go any speed and showed enough stamina to win at Epsom, even though there are some who say there is still a stamina doubt. I’m sure there will be a stronger pace on Sunday than there was at Epsom, and so questions will be asked and answered again. The stamp of the real greats is that they keep improving. We will see how this horse stands up to it, but so far he looks the real deal.”
That impression was first made in April of last year when Sea The Stars did his initial piece of fast work under Michael Kinane. With his pedigree and outstanding appearance, the embryonic champion was always a stand-out, but plenty of horses have boasted looks and relations and run like snails.
“The good ones usually show up straight away. The odd one might start slowly and come through, but as soon as Mick rode him in fast work he said he felt like a three-year-old,” remembers Oxx.
“We also came to the conclusion fairly early on that he doesn’t really like any dig in the ground, even though he won his maiden on soft. When he ran in the Beresford, it was dead ground but the best we could get at the time and we were lucky to get it. He won, but got tired in the ground,” he adds.
So while the rest of the country has been baking in sunshine this week, one man has been anxious about the weather not being hot enough. Oxx’s reading of ground conditions in the Curragh straight has not always been the same as the track’s authorities, and the steel underneath the mild demeanour is seen in his determination to keep the options open for Sea The Stars.
Some will see that as an indication of concern about the Epsom winner lasting the mile-and-a-half at the Curragh, which is popularly believed to be a stiffer stamina test.
“I don’t have a view on whether the Curragh is more of a stamina test. I just don’t. Some people will tell you it is stiffer, but I met Willie Carson at Ascot and he simply said, how many Epsom winners have failed at the Curragh for want of stamina?
“His argument is that Epsom is very tough. They are blowing at the top of the hill, and, while they might freewheel down the hill, it’s still a tough mile-and-a-half,” Oxx says.
What seems certain is that a stiffer pace will be guaranteed by Ballydoyle’s platoon of runners. Kinane’s decisiveness when faced with a comparatively mickey-mouse tempo at Epsom was enough to make the result seem almost inevitable from the time the field turned Tattenham Corner.
The 50-year-old former champion bows to no one in his admiration for Sea The Stars, and Oxx describes the veteran jockey’s input as “invaluable”. What happens once the gates open tomorrow the trainer is happy to leave to Kinane.
“Over the years all my jockeys have ridden fast work and they have a big role in what happens here. We work as a team,” he says.
“I think everyone was surprised by the pace at Epsom. It was the opposite of what we all thought it would be. The result was our fella was a bit over-eager. He didn’t pull as hard as it might have looked, but if they’d gone faster he would have settled better.”
The inference is that going faster tomorrow might play into the hands of Sea The Stars. Going fast for a long time is all very well, but ultimately it can leave you vulnerable to a class horse with a turn of foot. That’s the Oxx runner to a tee.
“Years ago, practically all Derby horses ran in the Guineas, but these days we are inclined to pigeon-hole horses too much. I’m sure other good horses I’ve trained would have run well in a Guineas, but they wouldn’t have had the speed of this one.
“It’s not as if he won the Guineas after coming off the bridle three furlongs out and getting up on the line. He was going well the whole way.
“The Irish Derby is a race that means a lot to us. It’s at our local track and it has been good to us. This time we have a great horse going there, and if he gets the trip he must have a great chance.”
Whether he gets the opportunity to even run now looks like being the sort of last-minute call that his trainer would rather avoid but is well able to make.
Factfile John Oxx
Irish Classic Victories:
Derby: Sinndar (2000), Alamshar (2003).
Oaks:Ebadiyla (1997), Winona (1998).
1,000 Guineas: Ridgewood Pearl (1995). St Leger: Eurobird (1987), Petite Ille (1989), Kastoria (2006).
Other Major Victories:
Epsom Derby:Sinndar (2000), Sea The Stars (2009).
Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe: Sinndar (2000).
Breeders' Cup Mile:Ridgewood Pearl (1995).
King George VI Queen Elizabeth Stakes: Alamshar (2003), Azamour (2005).
