AS time passes things are constantly changing and not always for the better, so when one learnt on Monday that John Oxx would cease training at the end of this flat season, it represented the conclusion of one of the great chapters in Irish racing.

At a time when superlatives are bandied about all too frequently, this news can truly be classed as the end of an era and the end of a truly outstanding career in which the name John Oxx became synonymous with excellence the world over.

From the tributes that have emerged this week from the likes of legendary jockeys Michael Kinane and Johnny Murtagh, there were glowing tributes to John Oxx the man and John Oxx the trainer.

Both are warranted in equal measure and Irish racing and the Irish training community will be much the poorer for his retirement as this most modest and self-effacing of individuals was a truly wonderful ambassador for Irish racing and the thoroughbred industry.

Strange place

Truly the Irish flat racing scene will be a strange place next year without the name of John Oxx appearing among the ranks of the country’s trainers. His presence has been one of the great constants over the last four decades and not only that but it supplied a steady flow of some of the most iconic moments from the annals of Irish flat racing.

Indeed, it says much about the Currabeg trainer’s achievements that some brilliant efforts that took place under his tutelage such as that of Manntari’s incredible 10-length triumph in the 1993 Irish National Stakes have warranted barely a mention this week.

The horse for whom the trainer will forever be remembered was Sea The Stars, unquestionably of the greatest thoroughbreds to set foot on the track. Of him there will be more later on, but long before Sea The Stars a number of other truly outstanding champions had passed though the care of John Oxx.

The first that springs to mind was Ridgewood Pearl, the star of a stellar campaign for the trainer in 1995 when he was crowned champion trainer. At a time when the level of opportunities for fillies at the top level were far less plentiful than nowadays, she embarked on a remarkable Group 1-winning spree that took in four top-level wins in four countries that culminated in a memorable autumn afternoon in Belmont Park when she won the Breeders’ Cup Mile under Johnny Murtagh in whose career Oxx played such a pivotal role.

Five years later it was the turn of Sinndar who remains the only horse to have won the Derby, the Irish Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Sinndar’s stunning campaign represented a hark back to another golden era for Irish racing as he was the first horse from these shores to win the Derby at Epsom since 1984, and when he enjoyed that career-defining success in Paris he was the first Irish horse to lift Europe’s most coveted middle-distance prize since Alleged.

However, even greater heights were to follow with Sea The Stars less than a decade later. After a juvenile campaign that promised much, the Cape Cross horse went on an unparalleled Group 1-winning run that yielded six top-level victories in as many months which began in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and stretched all the way through to the Arc.

Understated

As this three-year-old campaign for the ages unfolded in metronomic fashion before our eyes, the trainer’s typically understated style meant it seem almost routine, but it was anything but. It was a truly extraordinary career overseen with the sort of care, precision and expertise that belong one of the greatest exponents of racehorse training that Ireland has ever produced.

Later that same afternoon in Paris, Alandi was to cap a truly amazing day with a victory in the Group 1 Prix de Cadran, and it seems scarcely credible that this was to be the trainer’s final victory at the highest level.

However, as the former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly once stated, form is temporary, class is permanent – and there has seldom been a more fitting embodiment of this sentiment than John Oxx. From Group 1-winning sprinters such as Namid, to the stoutest of stayers like Enzeli, the trainer churned out a steady flow of top-class performers who excelled in a myriad of different disciplines.

It is hard to believe that it is now 11 years since Sea The Stars graced the racecourse, and the fact that it seems like just a couple of years ago is testament to the indelible impression made by both that colt and the man who masterminded his career so brilliantly.

Times change and nothing lasts forever, sadly, which means that the curtain will come down on John Oxx’s career in just a few weeks.

However, his achievements, the manner in which they were realised and the many outstanding thoroughbreds he has had through his hands – three of the finest horses ever to be based here – will ensure that John Oxx’s training career will stand any test of time.