Michael Kinane

I BEGAN working with John in the early 1990s when I took a second retainer to ride for the Aga Khan. All the top trainers I rode for were very different. John is a very open man, no hidden agenda. There are very few people like that, especially in this game.

He is a workaholic and was meticulous in his preparation of horses. They didn’t just turn up unprepared. A fabulous trainer, he was good at assessing what the horse was capable of and placing them well. That is the key.

With horses like Sea The Stars, the expectations are huge and everyone has an opinion. There is pressure there and you have to have the experience to handle it. John was always very calm.

I think only once did I see him lose his cool but nobody else was there to see it. We were giving Sea The Stars his final breeze before the Arc. John was already feeling the stress. I popped off the horse and said ‘I think he’s after improving again!’ John just turned on his heel and walked away muttering. In hindsight it was quite funny.

Once he legged you up, you felt that you had his support and confidence. I enjoyed every minute working with him and I can only wish him the very best.

Cathy Gannon

I LEFT school at 14 and went to RACE before I started with Mr Oxx at 16. I was a bit wild, loud and cheeky. Mr and Mrs Oxx took me under their wing. They didn’t just teach me about horses, they educated me in lots of ways, how to behave, how to communicate, even how to cook! They taught me how to present myself, how to treat others. They put me on the right path.

Once I was suspended by Mr Oxx for misbehaving in the yard. I begged him to take me back because my Ma would have killed me, and he gave me a chance.

I was only allowed to ride a pony for my first two years. Finally he let me on a racehorse and then one day he flipped a coin to see whether me or another apprentice would get to ride one of our horses in a race. I lost the toss but again I begged him to run our other horse as well so I could ride it, and he did.

Mr Oxx was like a father figure to me. He helped me when I was trying to buy a house, he made me champion apprentice and he was the one who convinced me to go to England to further my career.

He would ring other trainers trying to get me rides and he got me my first agent. It’s mad looking back at all the little things he did for me as a 10lb claimer. And when I was crowned champion apprentice in 2004 he and Mrs Oxx made the day very special for my family.

One day I said to him I was thinking about moving to England. I only said it in the hope he would give me more rides. He thought about it and said ‘I think that’s a good idea, you should go.’ I cried for an hour, but he was right.

Whenever I got a suspension in England I would come home to Dublin and ask Mr Oxx if I could ride out for him. He would always listen to your opinions, like if you said a horse wasn’t moving right. I rode the yearlings at his pre-training yard and I actually rode Sea The Stars but I didn’t know it at the time!

When my career as a jockey ended in 2017 he called me and said I was always welcome back. Look at all the great people who have come through the yard, and all those who have stayed there for decades. Doesn’t that say it all about him?

Fran Berry

NINE seasons I spent there and I enjoyed my time. It’s a dream to get a job like that in any of the big yards. Riding work there on Tuesdays and Fridays was great. It improved my riding no end.

In races you couldn’t lose because you had a plan going out but if you felt you had to do something else you just did it. You knew you had his support and that is a huge thing. You get better results that way, rather than being tied down to instructions if things go wrong.

There was never any change in his demeanour, win or lose. The horses were extremely well schooled, well trained, good rides. You knew if you were there with a shot two furlongs out your horse would not be beaten for lack of fitness.

The thing I will remember most was going in for the early bit of work at 6.30am in the summer. I would arrive at 6.20am and find that Mr Oxx was already there, maybe for 40 minutes, making sure everything ran smoothly. There would be tension in the air before the serious work was done but then everyone could relax for the rest of the morning. Everything was so professional and that is illustrated by the length of time his staff have stayed with him.

That summer of 2009 was a magical time to be involved in the yard. Mick [Kinane] used to ride in England a lot and I would enjoy telling the likes of Pat Smullen, Kevin Manning and Declan McDonogh that ‘Mick’s away and I have the keys to the Ferrari in the morning!’

It’s such a shame that the numbers and results went downhill in recent years but that does not take away from his record when he got a good horse. He maximised them to the full of their potential. It is the end of an era.

Niall McCullagh

I HAVE been associated wih the yard, on and off, since 1994 when I won the Irish Cesarewitch on Elupa. It immediately enhanced my career as I started to get on a better type of horse. John has always been a great supporter of mine.

There were no highs and lows with John. You could call him after winning a Ballinrobe maiden or the Doncaster Cup and he would be the same, level-headed and cool.

In all those years we never had a cross word. If you made a right Horlicks of one, he would just say ‘That was a bit frustrating, alright’ and because of that you always felt he had your back and that’s why everyone rode so well for him.

I left Currabeg at one stage to ride for Michael Grassick. We had some good years together but I went out of fashion around 2010. The first call I made was to John Oxx and I said ‘Boss, I am at a loose end, could I come back?’

He said ‘we always need a spare pair of hands’ and I will always be thankful for that. If he had said no, I probably would have retired. Because of him, I got another 10 years-plus out of my career. I was so delighted to win the Doncaster Cup for him in 2011 on Saddler’s Rock.

There were so many great days, great staff. He is a great man to work for and I just hope his staff can all get other employment. They couldn’t have better references. They have worked for the best.

Slim O’Neill

I HAVE been there since John started, in fact I was with his father for five years before that. In all that time I can’t remember any rows. He listens to everybody and everybody has an input. He takes it all on board. I would describe the boss as totally dedicated. He has a very good eye for a horse. He is there in the morning, Monday to Sunday, from 6.30am to 1pm, every afternoon and he loves evening stables too. He loves that part of it, looking over them, more than being at the races.

I have always thought his biggest asset as a trainer was knowing when to back off a horse. Of the thousands of horses that have gone through the yard, hand on heart, I can’t think of any he got less than 100% from. Any horses who left us and won big races did it over jumps!

Over the years I have seen so many good people come through the yard before going on to do great things themselves. Ken Condon, Johnny Murtagh and Francis-Henri Graffard are just three trainers who spring to mind as people who learned a lot from the boss.

Like me, lots of staff have stayed with the yard for years, but the boss would always encourage people to move on if they had ambition. He took an interest in their personal development. Even if it meant losing a good staff member, he would give them a glowing reference. He loved to see people bettering themselves.

The career of Sea The Stars wasn’t as enjoyable for him as it was for the public. It was nerve-racking because he had to win every time once he was on a roll.

Timarida was another brilliant bit of training. From the McDonogh Handicap at Galway to winning Grade 1 races all over the world. Same with Ridgewood Pearl. He seemed to instinctively know whether to give them a gallop or back off, and that prolonged their careers.

Look at his record in some of those big races: two runners in the King George and both won; four runners in the Derby for two winners and a third; three runners in the Arc and two of them won; two runners in the Breeders’ Cup – one winner and one [Azamour] an unlucky third – and they were years apart. Horses did not run in races just for the sake of having runners.