Oxx hoping for Star performance

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.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 10 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."They weren't expecting that much, they were expecting up to five, but it's been a very hot week and the ground would have been very fast so my information is that it is very similar to how it was at Epsom on Derby day. We are not anticipating a problem as long as there is no more significant rain," Oxx told At The Races."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 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 10 furlongs should be no problem and I think he stayed perfectly well at Epsom - I think he would have stayed at the Curragh too."Time will tell and at the end of the year I'll be able to tell everybody what his best distance is."The statistics are favourable enough towards three-year-olds. Other people are saying it is Derby winners that have the problem but they are basing that on two of them being beaten recently."They both ran well, Authorized's race was a very messy event, Motivator ran very well but he was just beaten by Oratorio, who beat him again in the Irish Champion Stakes so I'm not worried about that statistic."