The Oaks at Epsom

there are 8 meetings in Britain and Ireland today (5 in the evening), but only one that counts- Epsom with the Oaks at 17.05 CET the big race of the day. This classic race for fillies over the full Derby trip looks wide open this year with 13 runners (Toptempo a late withdrawal) and Aidan O´Brien saddling 6, 5 of them daughters of Galileo. His son Joseph partners Maybe, who finished third a hot favourite in the 1,000 Guineas and looks the best of them. Maybe, who was unbeaten in 5 races last year. is closely related to last year´s winner Dancing Rain (also the winner of the German Oaks) so this distance should prove no problem. All of O´Brien´s runners are of course bred in the purple, and Kissed (Ryan Moore) is a 3/4 sister to Derby winner Pour Moi; she looks the next best of the O´Brien runners but will only run if the ground is suitable, i.e. not too firm.

The Fugue (John Gosden/ William Buick) finished just behind Maybe at Newmarket and followed up with an easy win in the Musidora Stakes at York. 3 tough races in 26 days is asking a lot of a 3yo filly, but she has been very heavily backed and is challenging Maybe for favouritism. William Haggas and Johnny Murtagh took this with Dancing Rain and have another live candidate in Vow, who won the Lingfield Oaks Trial easily despite drifting across the track, with Colima (Ralph Beckett/ Jim Crowley) a beaten runner-up.

From the German point of view, the most interesting runner is Godolphin´s Kailani, who was supplemented for the race and will be ridden by Mikael Barzalona - leading to much unfounded speculation about Frankie Dettori´s role at Godolphin. Kailani, one of 3 unbeaten fillies in the field, was an impressive winner at Newmarket last time and the stable is now coming into form. She is a daughter of the German filly Kazzia, trained by Andreas Wöhler at two and then sold to Godolphin, for whom she won the 1,000 Guineas and Oaks. As a daughter of Monsun she is German on both sides of her pedigree, and although she might prefer softer going, we hope she wins and brings further glory of German breeding.