Watt is born on November 4, 1853, to Samuel Watt of Thornhill House, then on the northern outskirts of Derry, and his wife Jane Newman, daughter of Captain Robert Newman, R.N.. He is educated at Foyle College in Derry and then at home by tutors. The Watt family are Ulster Scots gentry who had arrived at Claragh, on the outskirts of Ramelton in the north of County Donegal, during the Plantation of Ulster.
Watt is the owner of Watt’s Distillery, located on Abbey Street in the Bogside in Derry, one of the largest distilleries in Ireland, and the creator of many whiskies, including the famous Tyrconnell, which he names after his racehorse that wins the National Produce Stakes against the odds of 100 to 1. The horse itself is named after Tyrconnell (Irish: Tír Chonaill), the ancient túath or Gaelic kingdom that once covered most of what is now County Donegal in the west of Ulster.
During industrial unrest in 1921, brought about by World War I, prohibition in the United States, and the Irish War of Independence, Watt’s workers at the distillery in Derry are made redundant after challenging his authority. He is said to have stood on a barrel outside the gates to his distillery in the Bogside, while the workers are on strike, and shouted, “Well men, I shall put it to you like this …what is it to be? Will you open the gates?” To which the workers retorted, “The gates stay shut!” This prompts Watt to reply, “Shut they are, and shut they shall remain!” He subsequently closes down Watt’s Distillery, at great economic expense to Derry and neighbouring areas of County Donegal.
On October 7, 1875, Watt marries Violet Flora de Burgh, daughter of George de Burgh and Constance Matthews, with whom he had four sons and two daughters.
Watt serves as High Sheriff of County Londonderry from 1886 to 1887. He is a member of Boodle’s. He dies at Easton Hall in Lincolnshire, where he lives in England after he left Ireland. Easton Hall is later demolished in 1951.
John M. Oxx, retired Irish trainer of thoroughbred racehorses, is born on July 14, 1950. By the end of the 2009 season he had trained thirty-five Group One winners over his career, including the winners of eleven Classic races. He is best known as the trainer of Sinndar and Sea The Stars.
Oxx has been widely praised for the care and undemonstrative authority with which he approaches the training and racing of his horses. He is particularly known for being highly selective when choosing when and where his horses will run.
Oxx is the son of John Oxx Sr., who is himself a successful trainer, winning eight Irish classic races. In 1950, his father purchases Currabeg, at the southwestern end of the Curragh in County Kildare, where Oxx Jr. takes over training. He graduates from University College, Dublin, as a veterinary surgeon in 1973, and works as his father’s assistant before taking over the stable in 1979. In that year he has his first win and his first Group win with Orchestra.
The Aga Khan begins to support Oxx’s yard with a number of yearlings after Eurobird’s win in 1987. When he decides to withdraw his racehorses from England following Aliysa’s disqualification in the Epsom Oaks of 1989, he establishes a significant presence in Oxx’s yard. Without a budget of his own to spend on yearlings, Oxx continues to be reliant on horses bred by owners with whom he has an association. In some years, he concedes, “you wouldn’t have anything remotely near Group One standard.”
Many of Oxx’s major race wins have come from Aga Khan-owned horses, beginning with Manntari’s victory in the Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at the Curragh in 1993, and continuing with Timarida’s win in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown Racecourse in 1996, followed by Ebadiyla’s victory in the 1997 Irish Oaks. He also wins that race with Winona the following year. In 2000, he trains the Aga Khan’s brilliant Sinndar to wins in the Epsom Derby, the Irish Derby, and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, making the colt the only horse ever to win that trio of races and at the time one of only three Irish-based horses to ever win the Arc.
Oxx comes to wider public attention when guiding Sea The Stars through a famous 2009 season in which he wins Group One races in England, Ireland and France, his six consecutive triumphs including the 2000 Guineas Stakes, the Epsom Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. He is typically understated when assessing the role of the trainer in the career of a great horse like Sea The Stars. “You can’t give them ability they don’t have,” he tells The Independent newspaper. “Really, it’s just a case of not messing it up – not to overtax the horse too soon, or ask it to do stupid things as a two-year-old. If you mind him sufficiently when he’s young, hopefully his ability will blossom.”
In an interview with The Observer, Oxx says of Sea The Stars: “I was always reading about racing and great horses of the past. So when you grow up with the history of racing and the history of breeding, the landmark horses that come along over a century, and more – to train one that’s in that league gives you the greatest satisfaction.”
Oxx serves as chairman of the Irish National Stud from 1985 to 1990. He is chairman of the Irish Racehorse Trainers’ Association from 1986 to 1991 and from 1993 to 1996. He serves on numerous other racing bodies and is chairman of the Racing Academy and Centre of Education. In 2008, he is given the Irish Racehorse Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame award.
Oxx marries Caitriona O’Sullivan in 1974. They have three children.
