Nottinghamshire Oaks

Easily the best of today´s 6 cards is at Nottingham, where the listed Nottinghamshire Oaks at 17.20 CET is the main feature. The race is for fillies and mares, but any resemblance with Friday´s classic race at Epsom ends there, as this event is for older horses over 10 furlongs. Almost all the 13 runners are in fact 4yo´s and none of them is probably up to winning a group race, with the possible exception of Godolphin´s extremely consistent Dream Child (Charlie Appleby/ William Buick). She is best known as an all-weather performer and all her 5 wins so far have come at Wolverhampton, but she showed last time at Goodwood that she is equally effective on turf when she was beaten a neck in a similar race by Miss Marjurie, who won a Group Three last week at Haydock. Tioga Pass, 5th, Momentus, 8th, and Mutatis Mutandis, 10th, all finished behind her at Goodwood and we see no reason why the form should not stand up. 2 possible opponents are Pleasant View (Luca Cumani/ Adam Kirby), an easy winner of a lesser race at Pontefract last time, and Solar Magic (John Gosden/ Frankie Dettori), runner-up in decent company on both her 2015 starts and now up in trip.

Some fair handicappers line up here over a mile at 16.50, and the interesting one here could be top-weight Market Share (David O´Meara/ David Nolan) who was trained in France last year by Pascal Bary and ran mainly in black type events. Big Baz (Willie Muir/ Martin Dwyer), third in the Newbury Spring Cup, and Spa´s Dancer (James Eustace/ Kirby), third in that race last year, are just two of the possible opponents in a very open race.

Equally open is the mile handicap for 3yo fillies half an hour earlier, in which some very well-bred and unexposed types are entered.Beautiful Ending (Saeed bin Suroor/ James Doyle) is a half-sister to Group One winner Sky Hunter, while Godolphin´ s other runner Elle Shade (Gosden/ Nicky Mackay) is out of German Group One winner Elle Danzig and Roxy Dancer (William Haggas/ Pat Cosgrave) is the grand-daughter of an Oaks winner. This race is too tricky to call but should certainly be watched; however the Haggas/ Cosgrave combination is in great form at present and all their runners today must be respected.

note: Beautiful Ending non-runner at 16.20

Nottingham - betting forecast:
1. Race: Cinders - Love On The Rocks - Modest
2. Race: Point North - Borough Boy - Gold Club
3. Race: Deep Blue Sea - Roxy Star - Zoella
4. Race: Big Baz - Market Share - Spa`S Dancer
5. Race: Pleasant Valley - Dream Child - My Spirit
6. Race: Atalan - Galileano - The Cashel Man
7. Race: Calrissian - Mysterial - Roxy Lane