A star-studded field lines up for the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks on Thursday afternoon at 3:35pm, which is the feature race on day two of the Ebor Festival at York. Some top class fillies and mares will battle it out for glory and our man Steve Chambers previews the race and gives his 1-2-3 here.
QUEEN OF THE PRIDE
(Oisin Murphy/John & Thady Gosden)
A narrow victory in the Pinnacle Stakes at Haydock was followed by a more impressive three-length win the Lancashire Oaks at the same track and Queen Of The Pride will now aim to make it a trio of wins on the bounce and is well fancied for the Yorkshire Oaks. John & Thady Gosden’s upwardly mobile daughter of Roaring Lion will need to improve again here, but she’s certainly showing she’s capable of landing a blow at Group 1 level and is the form horse to beat.
CONTENT
(Ryan Moore/Aidan O’Brien)
Last seen chasing home You Got To Me in the Irish Oaks at the Curragh, Aidan O’Brien’s Content will be one of the three-year-old fillies lining up here and she has some excellent form in the book. She will have to reverse that Classic form with Ralph Beckett’s raider here, but the daughter of Galileo is a class act and if Ryan Moore can hold her in a nice position then she has to warrant respect.
EMILY UPJOHN
(Kieran Shoemark/John & Thady Gosden)
Emily Upjohn has been one of the huge disappointments of this season, but the five-year-old is looking to propel back into the limelight with victory in this event. Well fancied for the Nassau Stakes, she found herself wide in the early stages and she was always playing catch-up in that contest and could only finish sixth. A former Group 1 winner of the Coronation Cup at Epsom, she has winning form at York in the Musidora Stakes from her younger days, but she will need to bounce back to down some improving types here.
YOU GOT TO ME
(Hector Crouch/Ralph Beckett)
Fourth in the Oaks at Epsom and fourth in the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot, You Got To Me finally landed the big prize when winning the Irish Oaks last time out. Beating Content that day, Ralph Beckett’s charge is one of the premier three-year-old middle distance performers in training, but now taking on the older horses she will need to kick on again. There’s no doubt she deserves her place in the line-up here, but she will need to build once again and it’s going to be tough.
THE FIELD
There’s a chasm between the top four in the betting and the bottom four, but Port Fairy is a second shot fired by the O’Brien gun and she was a shock winner of the Ribblesdale Stakes. She beat Lava Stream that day and that pair will do battle once again, but Port Fairy ran no sort of race in the Irish Oaks and has to bounce back, while Lava Stream was another to disappoint at the Curragh. A Listed winner at Newmarket last time out, Hughie Morrison’s Mistral Star is stepping up notably in grade here, while Sea Theme completes the line-up and is another in need of a career best.
VERDICT
Much was made of the ride on EMILY UPJOHN in the Nassau Stakes, but she was always just off the pace that day, so you can write it off. Proven at the highest level, she has winning form at York and while she will have lively rivals in the shape of Queen Of The Pride and Content, she is the real class act of the field and if the Gosden team have her right then she can simply outclass her rivals here.
2024 Yorkshire Oaks Predicted 1-2-3
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