Oxx still proud to be on Irish Champion Stakes roll of honour

Timarida, Azamour and the brilliant Sea The Stars all took top spot at Leopardstown.

John Oxx will always be remembered as the trainer of the great Sea The Stars, but his victory in the Irish Champion Stakes of 2009 was a third in the Leopardstown spectacular for the Currabeg handler.

His first success in Irish racing’s premier race came back in 1996 with the Aga Khan’s smart filly Timarida, but come the turn of the century, he was a frequent visitor to its paddock.

Alamshar was a beaten 5-4 favourite in 2003, a year later Azamour took the spoils, but in 2005 when strongly fancied to follow up he pulled a muscle when slipping on the bend.

“We had some good horses and the Irish Champion was quite a good race for us, starting with Timarida in 1996 and then into the 2000s,” said Oxx, one of the sport’s true gentleman and never one to blow his own trumpet.

John Oxx trained some high-class horses through his distinguished career
John Oxx trained some high-class horses through his distinguished career (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

“I had two great fillies at the time in Timarida and Ridgewood Pearl. Ridgewood Pearl won the four Group Ones in 1995, but Timarida was winning the other races like the Matron, the Prix de l’Opera and the E.P. Taylor. They weren’t Group Ones at the time, but are now because of fillies like her.

“We kept her on at four to win a Group One and she won three. She was high class, I never had better fillies than those two and they came at the same time.

“She won the Champion easy, she had a great turn of foot, she went all over the world, too.”

Alamshar ran in what is regarded as one of the best races ever to have been staged in Ireland.

“With Alamshar, it was obviously disappointing not to win – having won the Irish Derby beating Dalakhani and following up in the King George, we fancied him to win,” said Oxx.

“But that was a hell of a race that year, the first four were all top-class horses (High Chaparral, Falbrav, Islington, Alamshar) and I think it was the highest-rated race in the world that year and one of the best Irish Champion Stakes of all time.

“He was only beaten a couple of lengths but he was quite a small horse and the same thing happened to him that happened at Epsom in the Derby, he had horses around him and got a bit intimidated, he was 15:2 (hands), a lovely looking horse but not big.

“High Chaparral was on his outside through the race and Mick Kinane had him tight against the rail and he didn’t really like it.

“Maybe he found the ground on the fast side, too. He still ran well and got a rating of 125 or 126 for that race, but at the end of the year he was rated 131. It was a good run, even though we were initially disappointed.

“It was a controversial race of course, with a stewards’ inquiry and an appeal, but Mick did a super job that day to win on High Chaparral, who was a great horse.”

Azamour came with a late run to beat Norse Dancer
Azamour came with a late run to beat Norse Dancer (Haydn West/PA)

A year later, Azamour was on the scene for Oxx, owner the Aga Khan and Kinane and arrived widely forgotten, having not been seen since winning the St James’s Palace Stakes. But Oxx had always wanted to step him up in trip.

“Azamour had thrived physically between the spring and the autumn, he’d put on weight because he was a big, tall horse and he took time to reach his best,” he said.

“He was unfortunate in the English Guineas because the ground came up soft, but he ran a cracker looking like he needed further, then I still don’t know how he lost in the Irish Guineas to this day to Bachelor Duke.

“Instead of going up in trip to the Derby, which he would have nearly won, the owners wanted to try the St James’s Palace over a mile for his CV and with that under our belt, we could stretch him out.

“We did fancy him for the Champion Stakes, but Michael had him a long way back. He just liked riding him that way and he came thundering up the straight. He said he always knew he’d get there, but only did so in the last 50 yards.”

The following year, Azamour was a 6-4 favourite to beat the Derby winner Motivator, Alexander Goldrun and Grey Swallow, only for Oratorio to see them all off.

“In the next year, Christophe Soumillon rode him, as Michael had broken his wrist, but unfortunately he pulled a muscle when he slipped up on the bend,” said Oxx.

“We got him back for the Breeders’ Cup Turf, where he was unfortunate, he didn’t have a great run and was third to Shirocco. I thought he should have won.

“He was a horse Michael liked to hold up and come through horses, of course you’ll have good days and bad doing that. When he had a long straight like at York in the Prince of Wales’s, when Ascot was closed, and the King George at Newbury, that suited him.”

The story of Sea The Stars needs little introduction, six Group Ones in six glorious months – although only one in his homeland, the 2009 Irish Champion Stakes.

Oxx said: “We really wanted him to run in Ireland, but it almost didn’t happen as we’d had torrential rain that week and nobody thought he’d run, the bookmakers had him 6-1 to even run!

“Leopardstown has great drainage and missed the heavy rain of elsewhere and the ground was OK. We made up our minds the night before to run, a lot of people thought he wasn’t going to so made other plans, but it was great to run him.

“It was a great race to run in, the timing was perfect before the Arc and it got him his highest rating because it was the only time he went and really stretched away, as normally he only just did enough but he won by two and a half lengths – Mick always said he’d never win by more than a length!

“It’s a fantastic race, all the greats are on the roll of honour and I think it’s down to the timing. It can be a lead-up race to the Arc, the Champion Stakes in England or the Breeders’ Cup.”

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