York Ebor Meeting: second day

The Group One Yorkshire Oaks at 16.40 is the main feature at York today and looks just about the best race of the whole week. Even after the late withdrawal of Snow Fairy because of the softish ground, it is still an extremely strong field, with 3 older fillies/ mares opposed by 5 3yo fillies, all of whom ran in the Irish Oaks. Blue Bunting (Mahoood al Zarooni/ Frankie Dettori) finished fast to get up on the line at the Curragh and win by a short head from Banimpire (Jim Bolger/ Kevin Mannning), with Wonder of Wonders (Aidan O´Brien/ Seamus Heffernan) third, Laughing Lashes (Jessica Harrington/ Fran Berry) 4th and the German-bred Rumh (Saeed bin Suroor/ William Buick) seventh. Earlier Blue Bunting had flopped as favourite in the Oaks, when everything went against her, but had also shown tremendous speed when winning the 1,000 Guineas. She is very narrowly the form choice, but clearly has little in hand of the tough Baninmpire, who has won 6 out of 9 starts this season (!). Of the older horses, Crystal Capella (Sir Michael Stoute/ Kieren Fallon) is easily the best and we would not be surprised to see her crush the younger fillies as this trip and going should be ideal; her form when only 5th in the Nassau Stakes can probably be ignored. Vitaa Nova (Sir Henry Cecil/ Tom Queally) was beaten even further at Goodwood and despite the excellent stable form seems to have little chance here. From the German point of view, one must hope that the Irish Oaks form holds up, as Dancing Rain, winner of the Preis der Diana at Düsseldorf 10 days ago, was a close 5th in that race, but we make Crystal Capella our selection.

Another filly who ran below form at Goodwood but should be much better suited by conditions here is Gestüt Röttgen´ s Wild Coco (Cecil/ Queally), who runs in the listed race for fillies and mares over 1 1/2 miles at 17.15. Previously she had won in ´good style from Meeznah, who went on to win the Goodwood event with Pollys Mark (Clive Cox/ Richard Hughes) 4th and Field of Miracles (John Gosden/ Buick) ninth. Set to Music (Michael Bell/ Jamie Spencer) is owned by the Queen and has won her last 3 races, but this looks much tougher.

The main supporting feature is the Group Two Lowther Stakes for 2yo fillies at 15.30, one of the best juvenile races of the season. Angels will Fall (Barry and Michael Hills) would be a highly popular winner, with the trainer retiring at the end of the week, but Godolphin´ s Gamilati ( Zarooni/ Dettori) possibly just has the edge, while Best Terms (Richard Hannon/ Hughes) is unbeaten and another big danger. In any event we expect Hannon and Hughes to take the valuable 2yo sales race that opens the card at 15.00 with Crown Dependency. The handicaps, as always, look ferociously difficult; our very tentative suggstions are Harrison George (Richard Fahey/ Paul Hanagan) at 16.05 and Deauville Flyer (Tim Easterby/ Kieren Fallon) at 17.50.