by Mike Curry

For trainer John Oxx, every time Sea The Stars steps onto the turf on race day it is a special occasion, and on Saturday at Sandown he delivered another exceptional performance.

With the ink barely dry in the record books since Sea The Stars won the Investec Epsom Derby (Eng-G1) on June 6 to become the first horse since Nashwan in 1989 to complete the Stanjames.com Two Thousand Guineas (Eng-G1)-Epsom Derby double, the Cape Cross (Ire) colt battled gamely in the Sandown straight to hold off Rip Van Winkle in the Coral Eclipse Stakes (Eng-G1).

Held up in fifth early behind a swift pace set by Set Sail and Lang Shining, Sea The Stars accelerated willingly when asked for his run and powered to the lead with two furlongs left in the 1 1/4-mile race. Rip Van Winkle surged from near the back of the ten-horse field to challenge, but Sea The Stars responded gamely and held off that foe by a length under steady urging from Mick Kinane.

"He is so quick out of the stalls with his pace and it was almost as if I hit the front too soon today, but it was hard for me to stop him,” Kinane told Racing Post. “When the second horse came at me, he just picked up. You are never going to win by more than two lengths on him, he just does enough.

“You don't get many like him, he has so much early pace it is unbelievable."

Christopher Tsui’s Sea The Stars completed distance on turf rated as good in 2:03.40 to win his first race against older opponents. Conduit (Ire), the 2008 Eclipse Award winner as champion turf male, finished third, 4 1/2 lengths behind Rip Van Winkle.

A half brother to European champion and influential sire Galileo (Ire), winner of the 2001 Vodafone Epsom Derby and Budweiser Irish Derby (Ire-G1), Sea The Stars solidified his credentials as a colt of special quality. He became only the fifth horse since the start of the 20th century to sweep the English Guineas, Epsom Derby, and Eclipse Stakes and the first to accomplish the feat since Nashwan’s 1989 campaign.

"This is what keeps you working,” Oxx told Racing Post. “For 19 days out of 20, when you say, ‘What are you wasting your time for training racehorses when you can do something easier?’… these are the moments that keep you going.”

Though he is one win away from becoming only the 16th horse to sweep the English Triple Crown in the history of the series, Oxx did not mention the 1¾-mile Ladbrokes St. Leger (Eng-G1) on September 12 at Doncaster as one of Sea The Stars’s objectives.

He has an opportunity to become the first English Triple Crown winner since Nijinksy II in 1970 and only the third to accomplish the feat since 1918.

"We'll have to have a think about where he goes next. We just go from race to race,” Oxx told Racing Post. “We said after the Irish Derby we'd sit down and have a think about the rest of the year, but obviously it is after this race now. 

"The [1¼-mileTattersalls Millions] Irish Champion Stakes (Ire-G1) [on September 5] at Leopardstown would be a major objective for him and we have to figure out what we are going to do in the meantime.”

A start in the Irish Champion Stakes most likely would eliminate Sea The Stars from consideration for the St. Leger one week later. Bred in Ireland by Sunderland Holdings, Sea The Stars is the fourth Group 1 or Grade 1 winner produced by his dam, 1993 CIGA Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Fr-G1) winner Urban Sea.

Mike Curry is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor