"He's a nice horse. The ground was very soft and not many liked it and he didn't really either. He's a lovely big horse but he's not the finished article yet.
"He's not a precocious type and has a lot of developing to do. He's in the National Stakes and will be in the Beresford. He's promising but there is a long way to go."
Those were the unassuming words of trainer John Oxx after Sea The Stars won his first race at Leopardstown on 17th August, 2008.
It was the start of a winning streak that never ended for the son of Cape Cross with it eleven years to the day since he his first classic - the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.
Sent off at 8/1, Sea The Stars travelled strongly in the hands of Mick Kinane and pulled comfortably clear of Delegator in the closing stages.
Behind them was the likes of Rip Van Winkle and Mastercraftsman in a vintage renewal of the race.
Kinane said after the race: "He's a classy horse and we've waited for him all winter. He's been crying out for this ground."
The Derby was his next port of call and under a ice-cool ride he was too good for an Aidan O'Brien battalion of horses that included the second-placed Fame And Glory.
Oxx allowed himself to get a little more excited on that occassion.
"He's never let us down right from the word go. Some horses look the business and then let you down but this fellow has never let us down.
"I was never very anxious at any time during the race because he was going so well and as he improved down the hill I could see Mick was waiting, waiting, waiting.
"When he sent him on I knew he wouldn't stop as he'd been going too well for too long. He idles a bit in front, he's the same at home."
"He impressed us a yearling before he came to us, he just had everything."
That was to the last time he went off at odds against. In one of the most stellar seasons ever recorded by a racehorse - Sea The Stars went on to win the Coral-Eclipse, the Juddmonte International Stakes, the Irish Champion Stakes and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Widely regarded as one of best horses of his generation, Sea The Stars was retired after an unbeaten three-old campaign that may never be repeated.
Oxx said: “If you resurrected all the great horses from the past and put them standing up there in front of you, and walked them up and down and looked at them, and at their pedigrees, their performance, their race record, their temperament.
“He’s got the pedigree, the looks, that tremendous athletic frame, the temperament and then the record.
“When you put it all together, no breeder could hope to breed a better horse 300 years down the line from the development of the thoroughbred. That’s what he represents to me – the ultimate development of the thoroughbred species, now in 2009."
