Oxx and Prendergast merge yards

The Tetrarch

https://www.racingpost.com/news/latest/oxx-and-prendergast-merge-yards-ahead-of-skitter-scatters-classic-campaign/361017

The concentrations of top flat and NH horses to a few trainers and owners must be a factor here.
Good luck to Oxx and Prendergast for 2019 and beyond.

Gavin "shels"

Makes sense tbh - good idea to try get one up on the big trainers/owners.

The Mig

Can only be a positive move for both. Best of luck to them

tryfix

Hopefully it will re-energise the John Oxx stable. It's hard from the outside to understand how such a highly accomplished trainer hit a wall soon after his greatest triumph with his training feats with Sea The Stars. It's not like Sea The Stars success was a one off for Oxx who produced two 3yo colts to do the Epsom-Derby/Arc double within a single decade.

From the language used by Prendergast it would appear that merger might be too strong of a word for the arrangement. It seems more like a marriage of convenience arrangement rather than a true marriage between the yards.

Auroras_encore

I can't imagine they'll get any better quality of horse for the merger, I'd say its just a convenience thing more than anything

Scott Tenorman

While it makes sense to consolidate costs I can’t see this making any significant impact to future success.

You need rich owners and good horses

curioser

tryfix wrote: »

Hopefully it will re-energise the John Oxx stable. It's hard from the outside to understand how such a highly accomplished trainer hit a wall soon after his greatest triumph with his training feats with Sea The Stars. It's not like Sea The Stars success was a one off for Oxx who produced two 3yo colts to do the Epsom-Derby/Arc double within a single decade.

From the language used by Prendergast it would appear that merger might be too strong of a word for the arrangement. It seems more like a marriage of convenience arrangement rather than a true marriage between the yards.

While I never was privy to inside information or industry gossip, I always thought that John Oxx was badly let down, betrayed even, by his stable jockey, who was training horses using a licenced trainer as cover while riding Oxx's top horses, including those of his main owner. It seemed to come to a head one day when one of the Aga Khan's horses was beaten by a horse from the other stable. This appeared to be the straw that broke the camel's back for the Aga who soon afterwards removed all his horses from Oxx's yard and moved them to Halford and Weld. Subsequently Tommy Carmody, I think it was, ceased to be a licenced trainer, while J.P.Murtagh took out a licence and is still training.

tryfix

curioser wrote: »

While I never was privy to inside information or industry gossip, I always thought that John Oxx was badly let down, betrayed even, by his stable jockey, who was training horses using a licenced trainer as cover while riding Oxx's top horses, including those of his main owner. It seemed to come to a head one day when one of the Aga Khan's horses was beaten by a horse from the other stable. This appeared to be the straw that broke the camel's back for the Aga who soon afterwards removed all his horses from Oxx's yard and moved them to Halford and Weld. Subsequently Tommy Carmody, I think it was, ceased to be a licenced trainer, while J.P.Murtagh took out a licence and is still training.

For sure the Murtagh situation added to the Aga-Khan leaving the stable. The Aga-Khan did cut off Luca Cumani as well and the Cumani yard too was fatally weakened by that decision. Oxx had a terrible time with a virus, the loss of his main owner and then the loss of Sea The Star's owners the Tsui family. It's no wonder that he hasn't recovered, but you'd have to wonder why he was so slow to rid the yard of the virus. I can't think of another big yard that was as slow to turn things around.

As a trainer Oxx wasn't lacking. The Aga-Khan stock he had were mainly slow burner owner-breeder types who Oxx could wangle black-type out of if they had the engine. When he had a real good horse he got considerably more out of it than Aidan O'Brien would be expected to get out of it. For all Aidan's undoubted talent he has been unable to get any of his Derby winners to stay at peak until the first week in October at Longchamp.

It's a bit of a head scratcher as to where Oxx goes from here. His training lacks the precocious touch that's necessary to get big owners back to his stable.

kksaints

tryfix wrote: »

For sure the Murtagh situation added to the Aga-Khan leaving the stable. The Aga-Khan did cut off Luca Cumani as well and the Cumani yard too was fatally weakened by that decision. Oxx had a terrible time with a virus, the loss of his main owner and then the loss of Sea The Star's owners the Tsui family. It's no wonder that he hasn't recovered, but you'd have to wonder why he was so slow to rid the yard of the virus. I can't think of another big yard that was as slow to turn things around.

As a trainer Oxx wasn't lacking. The Aga-Khan stock he had were mainly slow burner owner-breeder types who Oxx could wangle black-type out of if they had the engine. When he had a real good horse he got considerably more out of it than Aidan O'Brien would be expected to get out of it. For all Aidan's undoubted talent he has been unable to get any of his Derby winners to stay at peak until the first week in October at Longchamp.

It's a bit of a head scratcher as to where Oxx goes from here. His training lacks the precocious touch that's necessary to get big owners back to his stable.

Possibly Henry Cecil. He had an awful time in the 00's until before Frankel due to a virus I think.

Kauto

An absolute disaster waiting to happen. Who's going to train the horses? Who has final say? Wont last the season.

tryfix

kksaints wrote: »

Possibly Henry Cecil. He had an awful time in the 00's until before Frankel due to a virus I think.

True, but I think Cecil's decline was long and gradual with an unbelievable amount of personal turmoil going on at the same time. Oxx was never in the rarefied Super-stable category that Cecil, O'Brien, Stoute, Fabre and Gosden inhabited at various times.

Cecil first lost his traditional owners such as Jim Joel, Lord Freedman, Howard De Walden who died off but then he fell out with Sheikh Mohammed and lost his horses as well. Through all that Khaled Abdullah stayed loyal to him and you can't do much better than having Juddmonte stock about the yard. Oxx has had no Juddmonte equivalent to tide him over and there's ferocious trainer competition in Ireland for the kind of rich owners that Oxx needs to get back on track.