JOHN Oxx expects Sea The Stars to have improved since his thrilling win in the Derby as he puts his reputation on the line in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown this afternoon.
The brilliant three-year-old has few questions to answer against his own age group having won the 2000 Guineas over a mile and the Derby over 12 furlongs.
Just as Nashwan did 20 years ago, Sea The Stars now tackles his elders over the intermediate
trip of ten furlongs and if he emerges victorious, there can surely be few doubters left. However, having pulled him out of last week's Irish Derby due to soft ground, Oxx was not pleased to hear news of around 15 millimetres of rain falling on Thursday night.
"We are not anticipating a problem as long as there is no more significant rain," said Oxx.
"You'd hope he's improved since Epsom, the race will tell us that, and the Epsom race took nothing out of him. He bounced out of that and continued with his work with his usual enthusiasm.
"You expect three-year-olds to improve as the year goes on, even the average ones, but the good ones tend to improve even more. He's only had five races so we'd have to be hopeful that there is improvement to come as the year goes on.
"Nobody really knows what his best trip is, only his performances on the racecourse over the course of the year will tell us that.
"When he ran in the Guineas, he showed so much speed over a mile it indicated ten furlongs should be no problem and I think he stayed perfectly well at Epsom – I think he would have stayed at the Curragh too."
One of Sea The Stars' main dangers is Sir Michael Stoute's Conduit, winner of the 2008 St Leger. While his Classic win came over four furlongs further than this event, he did not lack for speed when narrowly beaten on his seasonal debut at Sandown.
It was Cima De Triomphe who narrowly got the better of Conduit that day but Luca Cumani's charge meets him on 7lb worse terms.
Henry Cecil's Twice Over usually runs an honest race and has been narrowly denied numerous times at the highest level, while
Aidan O'Brien's Rip Van Winkle reportedly suffered a slight scare on Thursday night but it was not serious enough to make him miss the race.
