Class act who doesn’t always get the credit he deserves

It is a strange state of affairs when the favourites for one of the biggest races of the year has hardly merited a line of press coverage in the build up, but that’s the way it has been this week for John Oxx’s Azamour.
Class act who doesn’t always get the credit he deserves

The ever-phlegmatic Currabeg handler, is not in the slightest concerned about this situation and would undoubtedly confess that with all the ‘will-he, won’t-he’ media speculation about the participation of Epsom Derby winner Motivator, attention has been neatly switched off his Irish Champion Stakes title holder Azamour.

The weather has been the main focus for the British media ahead of the race, but the rain of the last two days has made the ground Leopardstown suitable for Michael Bell’s horse, after the connections found to their bitter disappointment that Motivator does not like fast ground.

That was the excuse after the horse was beaten in the Eclipse at Sandown in July by Aidan O’Brien’s Oratorio - another runner today - but Oxx has been watching the ongoing drama with something approaching disinterest.

“Obviously there have been some weather issue for the others in the race,” he says, “but the rain has come and it looks like that will be enough to bring the others into it. Our only concern it that is does not come up real soft or anything.”

In that unlikely event, there is nothing else really to worry about, he reports, saying that Azamour has done all his work and is ready for action.

“Our fellow is in good form and he is doing all his work consistently and, so far so good, we’ve been very happy with him.

“It has been a seven week interval since he last ran in the King George (at Newbury, which he won), but it has not really been difficult for us to keep him on the boil.

“He had a little break after Newbury, but we’ve kept him ticking over since then. He is a fresh, exuberant horse and he needs to be in work all the time.

“He enjoys his routine so, no, there have been no problems,” the trainer says.

One slight hiccup could have been the fact that regular jockey Michael Kinnane misses the ride after breaking his wrist in a fall at the Curragh recently, but again Oxx is nonplussed by that turn of events.

“Michael knows the horse so well, they have what you might call an excellent working relationship and he also knows Leopardstown, knows the opposition and it was a set-back for him to miss the ride. Nevertheless we are very lucky to have such a good jockey as Christophe Soumillon to take his place.

“Christophe was over a few weeks ago and rode work on him, so we’ve no worries on that front,” Oxx reports.

However, he does not necessarily agree that this year’s renewal of the Irish Champion Stakes is as ‘hot’ as last year’s race, despite the fact there is no big challenger from Godolphin, for example.

“No, I’d say the race is every bit as hot as last year’s when Norse Dancer was second and Powerscourt was third. Norse Dancer goes again and so does Grey Swallow.

On top of that you have this year’s Derby winner, Motivator, who I know is thought highly of by his connections. And then you’ve got Oratorio who has beaten Motivator since then.

“So it is a very good field again. There is no question it is high class, they are all class horses and they all have high ratings, so it will be a good race.”

The handler reckons that because Azamour is such a “straightforward” horse there will be no real need to change tactics at Leopardstown this time around as the horse will not be doing “anything particularly different.”

Azamour is slightly different from many horses owned by the Aga Khan in that he remained in training as a four-year-old and not too many do.

The feeling in the camp is that while the horse did reasonably well last year, there was a lot more to come from him and on that basis the decision to keep him in training was an easy one.

“Despite the fact he won the St. James’ Palace and the Champion Stakes, we felt he had a slightly unlucky year and didn't get the credit he deserved; he hadn’t had the chance to show people how good a horse he was.

“We didn’t think he was going to get the rating we felt he deserved, so we thought we’d have another go and we just hoped he’d prove himself. So far he’s been doing that.

“He was a big strong horse who was growing and developing right through his three-year-old year and there was always a great chance he would go the right way from three to four and improve some more. I suppose he has done that, but I think he was better last year than some people might have given him credit for, even though he was still nearly the top horse of the year.

“He ran into soft ground in the Champion Stakes at Newmarket at the end of the year and he just didn’t achieve what he was capable of doing, we thought.”

Oxx says he did not have any great problem persuading the owner to go down this route as the Aga Khan “straight away saw the merits” of the plan. The merits of the plan will, for the connections, mean a second tilt at Irish Champion Stakes glory and perhaps a visit to America at the tail end of the year and a Breeders Cup title. For the moment, however, victory today would do just nicely.

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