One day after announcing his retirement from training, John Oxx opened up about the decision to Sky Sports Racing and reflected on a few of the best he has handled.
“It’s not something you decide to do overnight–it’s been on our mind for a few years,” Oxx said. “Now seems the right time as we don’t really have enough horses to justify keeping going. It was a pretty easy decision to make as you have to have a viable business.
“Trainers love to keep going, of course–we like what we do. We probably all keep going longer than we should, but it was pretty clear to us now is the right time to stop. I had a big stable at one stage and we did well, but stables are getting bigger and bigger now, which does make life harder for other trainers and smaller trainers.”
Sea The Stars (Ire) was not only the greatest Oxx ever trained, but one of the best of all time.
“I was always happy to say he was one of the greats and that’s good enough for me,” Oxx said. “He is certainly one of the best ever on ratings–he was an incredible horse. I suppose the thing about Sea The Stars is you only ever saw 75 or 80% of what was in the tank. He always won comfortably and had plenty of gas left as he didn’t exert himself too hard. He’s one of those great horses that only comes along now and then–in a 100-year period you don’t see many horses like him and Frankel and Mill Reef and Nijinsky.”
Sea The Stars went a perfect six-for-six at three, all at Group 1 level, including the G1 2000 Guineas and G1 Derby and culminating in the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
“It was a terrific achievement for the horse, he had this tremendous energy and tremendous soundness and will to win. He had all the attributes you wanted,” said Oxx. “You couldn’t take on that sort of programme with every horse, but we knew this fellow had that unique constitution and would be able to do it if we didn’t have any bad luck with ground or an injury along the way. We knew he had the capability to do it and we wanted him to prove himself one of the greats. It’s no good talking about it, saying a horse is this good or that good, they have to go out and win. To finish up and pull it off in the Arc was fantastic and such a relief for us to get him there and have him fulfil his destiny.”
Sea The Stars pulled off the Arc/Derby double nine years after Oxx had accomplished it for the first time with Sinndar (Ire), who also took the G1 Irish Derby that season.
“He was a great horse,” Oxx said. “I thought coming into his 3-year-old season he might be a horse who would be placed in the Derby, but as soon as he ran his first race I knew there was a lot more there than was evident at home.
“He was a beautiful horse with a wonderful temperament and as tough as nails. Every time he ran he was five pounds better than the previous time and he just got sharper as he went through his 3-year-old year and stronger.
“Your grandmother would have ridden him out early in the year, but by the time it came to the Arc, you just had to watch him as he’d throw a jump and a kick–he wasn’t anybody’s ride in the end. He got stronger and more aggressive and more confident. That’s the way with those great horses, they’re never finished.”
The best filly to pass through Oxx’s hands was the globetrotting Ridgewood Pearl (GB), who won Group 1s in four countries.
“She was a really strong filly–masculine-looking with a terrific temperament,” Oxx recalled. “She was very consistent and always the same in her work and ate all her feed–she was a bit of a machine really. Sometimes those fillies that are very good– you’ve seen it with Enable recently–they’re just very tough and consistent and once they like racing they keep liking it. Ridgewood Pearl would go on any ground and nothing stopped her. She was a pleasure to train.”
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