Tag Archive for: Yorkshire Oaks

Estrange keeps Arc hopes afloat with Yorkshire Oaks run

/in /by

The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe dream remains alive for connections of Estrange after she chased home Minnie Hauk in the Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks.

David O’Meara’s grey had looked every inch a top-class filly in winning four of her first five starts, most recently striking Group Two gold in last month’s Lancashire Oaks at Haydock.

Despite ground concerns, Estrange was given the go-ahead to step up to Group One level for the first time on the Knavesmire and her supporters must have been getting excited as she cruised menacingly into contention under Danny Tudhope early in the home straight.

She was ultimately no match for the Epsom and Irish Oaks heroine Minnie Hauk, to whom she was conceding 9lb, but there still appears to be every chance she could become Cheveley Park Stud’s first runner in Europe’s premier middle-distance contest on October 5.

“She ran a cracker on ground that maybe wasn’t quite ideal for her – she likes a bit softer. She was giving the winner 9lb and has finished second in a Group One to upgrade her CV, so we’re delighted,” said Cheveley Park director Richard Thompson.

“Two furlongs out, I’ve got to say, for a couple of seconds I thought ‘we could do this’. But you soon realised Minnie Hauk had too much and the 9lb was too much.

“The bottom line is it was a very good performance and we’re delighted to get second in a Group One.”

On a possible tilt at the Arc, for which Paddy Power make her a 33-1 shot, Thompson added: “The dream is not dead, of course it’s not, and if the ground came up right you’ve got to consider it because you don’t get many shots at the Arc.

“We’ll have to sit down and have a think about it, see how the ground looks and how she comes out of this race and take it from there because you’ve got other options for her, but the Arc is a dream of course as we’ve never had a runner in it and we’d love to have runner, who wouldn’t?

“You’ve got the fillies and mares race at Ascot on Champions Day two weeks later, so you’d have to see how the field was shaping up for the Arc and everything else. Ascot would be a good option for her as the ground should come all right for her there, it normally does.”

O’Meara was similarly delighted with the performance of Estrange and is looking forward to campaigning her at Group One level, wherever that may be.

He said: “Take nothing away from Minnie Hauk as she was tough today and she was tough at the Curragh – it’s what she does best. But we’re delighted with our filly, I think she’s run a very good race and we’re very proud of her.

“I was starting to get a little bit excited when Danny loomed up. She’s a lot of class, how she can move up so easy in a race – it’s a great asset.

“I’ll speak to connections and see what they’d like to do. We had this race in mind for a long time, for a while it was looking in doubt with the way the weather was and the ground was, but we’ve taken a chance and based on how she’s ran I think we were justified in doing so.

“I wouldn’t rule out the Arc, why not (have a go)? The only two older fillies that have won this race in recent years have both won Arc – Enable and Alpinista.

“Our filly has run a very good race today on ground that I think isn’t her optimum and she deserves her spot in Group One company.”

Minnie Hauk hits another winning note in Yorkshire Oaks

/in /by

Minnie Hauk completed an Oaks four-timer with a neat victory in the Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks.

One of two runners for Aidan O’Brien in the Group One feature, the daughter of Frankel came into the York Group One with Cheshire, English and Irish renewals on her CV this term and was ridden by Ryan Moore as the 8-15 favourite.

Her stablemate Garden Of Eden set the pace and David O’Meara’s Estrange did ensure the winner had a race, but the triumph was ultimately light work by three and a half lengths on the line.

O’Brien said: “She’s beautiful, she does everything right, she cruises, she’s a lovely mover and obviously the Arc and the Breeders’ Cup Turf, all those races are there for her.

Minnie Hauk adds the Yorkshire Oaks to her haul
Minnie Hauk adds the Yorkshire Oaks to her haul (PA)

“Ryan said the (Breeders’ Cup) Turf, so she’s obviously given him an unbelievable feel. Ryan gave her a class ride, he was very cool on her. She is classy and he gave her a very confident ride.

“It wasn’t going to be a Mickey Mouse race today, they were going to go an even gallop without going crazy. Ryan has always said the stronger the tempo, the better we’re going to see.

“She’s very exciting.”

O’Brien – who saw Delacroix and dual Derby winner Lambourn suffer defeat on Wednesday – went on: “We’ve always felt the better the race the better she’ll be.

“It was good for Ryan, he had a tough day yesterday and things didn’t work out but the professional that he is he didn’t flinch.

“It was a nicely-run race, even though there were only four in it, I think the second is a nice filly, isn’t she.

“She’s won well in the end our filly, she obviously stays very well and always finishes her race off well. She doesn’t kill herself getting there but she’s always finishing.

“She has to be close to the top of our pecking order for the Arc, she’s an improving filly at this time of year.

“She could go to the Breeders’ Cup Turf but also the Arc. Whirl could go with her.

“Whirl could go to the Vermeille or Irish Champion, but there’s a good chance Delacroix goes back to the Irish Champion and if John (Gosden) brings his horse (Ombudsman) it will be great.”

Queen Camilla with the connections of Minnie Hauk
Queen Camilla with the connections of Minnie Hauk (Richard Hauk/PA)

Co-owner Michael Tabor said: “I think she won very comfortably, she’s obviously very good and looking forward maybe she will run in the Arc or the Breeders’ Cup. Hopefully we can keep her in training as a four-year-old and enjoy her.

“There’s no secret to the success. First of all we have a very good trainer but we try to breed the best to the best as we all do, like Godolphin and Juddmonte. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

“Yesterday was not a disaster, but it was tough. It’s tough when you lose which is why you have to appreciate when you win because it is not easy.

“Minnie Hauk beat Whirl at Epsom and dare I say their next races will be the Arc and the Breeders’ Cup for one or the other and hopefully they’ll have good chances in those races.”

Minnie Hauk at concert pitch for Yorkshire Oaks date

/in /by

Minnie Hauk bids to win a fourth different Oaks in the Pertemps Network-sponsored Yorkshire version on Thursday.

Aidan O’Brien’s Frankel filly has been outstanding so far this season, collecting three successive Oaks titles starting with the Listed Cheshire contest, before adding Classic strikes in both the Epsom and Curragh editions.

Now she turns her attention to the Knavesmire, with only three rivals opting to take her on in the mile-and-a-half Group One – including Ribblesdale-winning stablemate Garden Of Eden.

“This was always the obvious place to bring Minnie Hauk after the Curragh and she seems in good form since then,” said O’Brien.

“The trip and ground are perfect for her and since the Irish Oaks everything has gone well with her.

“Garden Of Eden won the Ribblesdale and then we sent her for the German Oaks but that didn’t work out.

“She was drawn very badly and she just never really got into it, it never happened.”

Ed Walker’s Qilin Queen was eighth behind Minnie Hauk in the Oaks at Epsom, the only real blip in a consistent career thus far that includes a Group Two success in the Prix de Malleret at ParisLongchamp last time out.

“Qilin Queen is a lovely filly who has done nothing wrong in her career,” the trainer said.

“The Oaks was the only bad run in her career and I think you can put that down to the soft ground and she probably wasn’t that happy on the track.

“However, on top of the ground she’s really not put a foot wrong and we know she stays the trip well.

“She will have to step forward significantly to challenge this lot, but she’s entitled to.”

David O’Meara’s Estrange is the other British-trained entrant, a striking grey who has won both starts this season when taking the Lester Piggott Fillies’ Stakes and then the Lancashire Oaks.

She steps up to the top level, although connections are prepared to make a late call on her participation on the Knavesmire, eager to ensure an easier surface for the four-year-old.

“We’ll have a chat to connections tonight and see what they think,” said O’Meara at York on Wednesday.

“I walked it on Monday and I thought they had put plenty of water on and it felt good to soft. The (slow) times (today) could be a little bit of headwind affecting them as much as anything else but I thought they had watered very well.”

More Oaks glory beckons for Minnie Hauk

/in /by

Minnie Hauk can be expected to swoop on yet more prey to claim York’s Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks.

Aidan O’Brien’s daughter of Frankel has proved tough as teak this season and took her winning run to four when adding to her Oaks success at Epsom in the Irish equivalent last month.

Having worn down high-class stablemate Whirl – herself a dual Group one scorer since – late in the day at Epsom, Minnie Hauk again showed her staying prowess when doubling her Classic tally at the Curragh.

With O’Brien holding all the aces in this Group One he has won nine times, Minnie Hauk is his trump card and it is difficult to see any of her rivals having both the class and resolve to outlast this outstanding filly up the Knavesmire’s long home straight.

She can add a third Oaks of the year here and begin dreams of Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe glory for her ever-dominant team.

The action begins with a red-hot renewal of the Sky Bet Lowther Stakes where the intertwining form lines of the six-furlong juvenile division will be put to the test.

Ed Walker’s Royal Fixation and Tim Easterby’s Argentine Tango both represent the high-class Venetian Sun form from Newmarket’s Duchess of Cambridge Stakes, with the latter – who would be a popular local winner – also chasing home Nunthorpe favourite Lady Iman at Goodwood.

However, it was hard not to be impresses with the way America Queen breezed her way to victory on debut at Haydock last month in the manner of an ultra-smart animal.

Holes can easily be picked in the form of that race, but judged on visuals, Richard Hughes’ youngster was one of the most impressive of the season to date and with Ryan Moore booked to take the ride a bold bid is predicted.

Clive Cox is the man to follow in the Harry’s Half Million By Goffs where Song Of The Clyde can follow in the footsteps of Dragon Leader and Diligently to land the huge bounty for a third year in a row.

Yet to be dipped into deep waters, the Middleham Park Racing-owned colt beat a subsequent winner when opening his account at Chester on his second start and was not asked any serious questions when chasing home Ralph Beckett’s Gimcrack hope Egoli at Newbury most recently.

The owners also run Rod Millman’s Anthelia who is sure to be shorter in the betting following her Super Sprint triumph at Newbury, but while she may have already enjoyed her moment in the sun, there is a chance Song Of The Clyde has his best days ahead of him.

Remmooz enjoyed stepping up to a mile when scoring over course and distance last month and looks good value for just a 4lb raise in the Clipper Handicap.

The only defeat of his career has come when a respectable fourth in the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot and it would be no surprise to see Owen Burrows’ colt return to stakes company before the year is out.

Paddy Twomey’s Irish raider Bonus Time is another progressive performer to keep onside in the British EBF Fillies’ Handicap after scooping a valuable prize at Naas at the beginning of the month.

SELECTIONS:

CHELMSFORD: 5.30 Harswell Duke, 6.00 Isambard Kingdom, 6.30 Parole Officer, 7.00 Reliable Ricki, 7.30 Brother Dave, 8.00 Invincible Love, 8.30 Poetic Jack, 9.00 Pebble Island.

KILLARNEY: 4.32 Urgent Whisper, 5.07 Bowensonfire, 5.37 Emily Love, 6.07 What’s Up Darling, 6.37 Gaelic Des Chastys, 7.07 Pride Of Place, 7.37 Wonleg, 8.07 Max Goodwin.

LINGFIELD: 2.00 Merci Monsieur, 2.35 Mezcala, 3.10 So Sassy, 3.45 Fram Castle, 4.20 Harpsichord, 4.55 Sugar Kane.

LEOPARDSTOWN: 4.50 Josh’s Joy, 5.25 Saxon Grace, 5.55 Clever And Classy, 6.25 Defiantly, 6.55 Colpe Cross, 7.25 Take Me, 7.55 Tachos.

NEWCASTLE: 5.45 Road To Wembley, 6.15 Ribble Vibe, 6.45 Bragbor, 7.15 Streets Of Gold, 7.45 Pixie Diva, 8.15 Believe The Storm, 8.45 Arctic Voyage

NEWTON ABBOT: 2.10 Three Pikes, 2.45 Lady Henrietta, 3.20 Cave Article, 3.55 Hope Rising, 4.25 Fringill Dike, 5.00 Faded Fantasy, 5.35 Magic Seven.

YORK: 1.50 America Queen, 2.25 SONG OF THE CLYDE (NAP), 3.00 Remmooz, 3.35 Minnie Hauk, 4.10 Alice Monet, 4.45 Ballistic Missile, 5.20 Bonus Time.

DOUBLE: Song Of The Clyde and Bonus Time.

Waardah far from certain to go to York

/in /by

Waardah looks set to bypass the Yorkshire Oaks on the Knavesmire and head straight to Qipco British Champions Day should the drying weather continue for Owen Burrows’ star filly.

The three-year-old daughter of Postponed stepped up to a mile and six furlongs for the first time with ease as she held off Danielle to secure the Lillie Langtry at Goodwood last week.

That success put her in the conversation for the Group One contest during the Ebor Festival at York, but the lack of cut in the ground has cast doubt over Waardah’s participation.

However, the Farncombe Down trainer is unfazed at a potential three-month wait for her return at Ascot, if she does not get her preferred conditions.

“She’s come out Goodwood well,” Burrows said. “She’s in the Yorkshire Oaks, that might come a bit quick to be honest and looking at the weather she does like to get her toe in a little bit.

“There’s no significant rain anywhere through until the end of next week and I think the Fillies & Mares at Ascot is tailormade for her with near enough guaranteed soft ground, so I’ll probably work my way back from that.

“If she’s having to go straight there, then so be it. If we can get another one into her then great, that’s a bonus.”

Monday Musings: Lies, Damned Lies, and…

/in /by

Don’t look now, but York starts on Wednesday and every year for me that means the beginning of the end of summer, writes Tony Stafford. The nights start to draw in; evening race meetings begin at 4 p.m. and if they want to stage ten-race cards as they have been doing recently, they’ll need to be over by 8 p.m. at the latest, except on all-weather.

I’m still not going racing, instead waiting for the day that, like the French, the British (and Irish) public can attend. Harry and Alan are going up to York and have got a great deal in the Marriott at the mile and a half gate. All they need now are some of the highly-regulated owners’ badges to go their way. Wednesday looks good apparently, but some of the other days are more questionable. It might be a case of watching on the hotel telly.

There’s been a fair amount of goalpost-moving lately. I’m delighted that I can get back from today to ice-rink chauffeuring. In the end Mrs S and her skating chums didn’t have to resort to chaining themselves to the Downing Street railings like latter-day suffragettes to get their pleas heard. Now she needs to see if she can still skate after six months off since her latest leg operation.

But the biggest movement, and one more than relevant to someone who has meticulously – as you all will be aware – kept the Covid-19 UK daily death figures since mid-March, immediately after the conclusion of the Cheltenham Festival, is how they are reported.

Spikes and the now seemingly-defunct “R” number have kept us all in check – bar the odd quarter of a million on Bournemouth, Brighton or Southend beaches when it got really hot. But in the middle of last week, suddenly the Government finally proved that there really are “three kinds of lies - lies, damned lies and statistics” as commonly attributed to the American writer Mark Twain, though whose true origin may predate that great wordsmith.

Back in mid-April, in the week to April 12 there were 6,425 recorded Coronavirus UK deaths, an alarming figure that mercifully began to reduce steadily. By mid-July we were in the realms of below 500 a week and still falling. During the same period, testing was increasing exponentially from the starting point of barely 10,000 tests – in other words, at that time people were really only tested when it was obvious they had the virus. But, by July, between 100,000 and 200,000 tests were available every day.

Then suddenly last week, the Ministry – amid renewed local lock-downs where clusters of positive tests were revealed – concluded it would no longer count as Coronavirus deaths, anyone tested as having the virus but who died more than 28 days afterwards.

So from July 31, when the brave new world came in, and when positive tests were going back up again to 1,000 plus each day the daily deaths in the UK were not. Starting on the last day of July the number of deaths has been 5, 1, 18, 14, 18, 12, 3, 5, 17, 14, 20, 18, 11, 3 and 5. Those numbers are probably smaller than many other routine causes of deaths in a population of 60 million. In all honesty, if that is the basis by which it’s judged, shouldn’t we be getting back to normal?

If they don’t yet have a vaccine ready, shame on them. There have been plenty of people willing to act as paid guinea-pigs, especially if their jobs have disappeared. You might even say if the figures can be presented thus, what’s all the fuss been about?

To the racing. It’s expected to be fast ground at York – amazing news for anyone who has been waiting for the action to start at the Test match at Southampton over the past few days, and they are the conditions I prefer to see on the Knavesmire. Frankie Dettori won’t be there but as the great man approaches his 50th birthday in December, he is showing a rare facility for making correct choices.

While the racing goes on at York, he’ll be staying in Deauville having had the news on Friday that the newly-re-imposed 14-day self-isolation period for people returning from France and some other countries has been modified for elite sportsmen. They, it seems, need only face a seven- or eight-day spell under specific conditions in self-isolation at home before resuming full activity.

Frankie was anxious not to miss either Mishriff, the French Derby winner, impressive again at Deauville last Saturday, or the unbeaten St James’s Palace hero Palace Pier in yesterday’s Prix Jacques Le Marois. That fast-improving colt came through to beat Alpine Star with the older horses led home by Circus Maximus, and best of the home team, Persian King, well beaten off. He is now being lined up for the QE II Stakes at Ascot in the autumn.

Alpine Star had been narrowly pipped in the French Oaks by the Donnacha O’Brien-trained Fancy Blue who went on to take the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood with authority. Jessica Harrington trains Alpine Star, and the two Irish fillies – along with the Aidan O’Brien-trained Peaceful – comprise a formidable trio of mile/ten-furlong star sophomores.

None of them will be at York, but the best of the lot among the Classic generation of females will be.

Potential opposition to Love in Thursday’s Yorkshire Oaks again seems to fall principally on Frankly Darling, who disappointingly failed to provide much of a test at Epsom for the Coolmore filly as she added the Oaks to her 1,000 Guineas honours in spectacular style. The four-year-old Manuela De Vega is smart but conceding lumps of weight? Hardly! Dettori’s absence from York – he’s staying en France an extra week – tough! – to wait for a Wesley Ward runner in next weekend’s Prix Morny.

That will still give him time for the requisite eight and a few more days before teaming up with Enable in Kempton’s September Stakes, a cleverly-thought-out target from John Gosden which obviates the need to tackle Love before the Arc. Enable won the September Stakes two years ago as a prelude to her second win in Paris in October. How they would cherish a third as a six-year-old after the shock of being caught close home by Waldgeist last year.

The York meeting opens with another Gosden star, Lord North, the major loss this week for Dettori judged on the four-year-old’s upward-mobility this summer. Winner of six of his nine career races with two seconds and a luckless eased last of eight in the other, Lord North has progressed from a laughably-easy Cambridgeshire winner to outclassing his Prince Of Wales’s Stakes opponents at Royal Ascot. James Doyle is the beneficiary, as he was at Ascot when Dettori rode Mehdaayih. Who’s to say Lord North cannot progress enough to beat Ghaiyyath, as well as the 2,000 Guineas winner Kameko and possibly Magical in the Juddmonte International?

We won’t have Saturday’s Ebor Handicap runners until around 1 p.m. today and I can’t wait to see which potentially top-class horse Messrs Gosden, Haggas or Varian will have lined up to win it. Even though the total prize pool has been slashed from £600,000 to a relatively frugal £250,000 I’m sure there will be enough horses to fill the 22 available stalls. It would be great if a hard-knocking horse from the North could see off the aristocrats from Newmarket.

Another race that I’m looking forward to is Friday’s Nunthorpe Stakes, not least because Wesley Ward is bringing a lightly-raced but clearly talented juvenile to tackle Battaash, Art Power and A’Ali. His Golden Pal, runner-up after making the running to The Lir Jet in the Norfolk Stakes will be going there as a maiden with form figures of 22, having earlier been beaten when favourite for a Gulfstream Park maiden in the spring.

He will be echoing to a large degree the pre-Nunthorpe record 13 years ago of the John Best-trained juvenile Kingsgate Native, a 66-1 debut runner-up in the Windsor Castle Stakes and then second again in the Molecomb at Goodwood.

Backed down to 12-1 (among many, by me!), Kingsgate Native easily beat Desert Lord with future stallions Dandy Man and Red Clubs the next two home. I note the weights will be unchanged from then, so Battaash carries 9st11lb; three-year-olds Art Power and A’Ali 2lb less and Golden Pal only 8st1lb. He will have Andrea Atzeni, who rode him at Ascot, back on board.

I know the other three are highly-talented, and it would be another feather in the Charlie Hills cap if Battaash could win a second Nunthorpe, but I’d much prefer Wesley’s undying love for British racing to get a reward after a couple of less than wonderful years. He certainly seems to have all his ducks in line this time.

So in conclusion, I say enjoy York, if you are, like Harry and Alan, fully documented-up. If not, the wonderful coverage – free and flourishing on ITV though I still doggedly stick to Racing TV – deserves watching for all four days. Please then, start taking off the restraints, Mr Boris. Five months using only two tanks of fuel has been sacrifice enough.