A week tomorrow sees the The Oaks and The Coronation Cup at Epsom for the first Derby Festival since the new Grandstand was officially opened. Having attended Breakfast with the Stars this morning I will begin my Oaks preview here.

The Oaks could be a vintage renewal of the Investec sponsored Classic with a strong challenge from both sides of the Irish Sea. At the head of the betting is Sariska (4.2 from a high of 10), who won The Musidora impressively at York after losing on her re-appearance at Newbury in April. The Michael Bell trained filly was undoubtedly impressive at York and she certainly benefitted from the step up in trip but there was something at Newbury which would make me worry if I was taking shortish odds at Epsom.

Michael Bell was talking at Epsom today about her chances and everything he said oozed confidence about her chances on Friday week. She did a nine furlong piece of work yesterday and he has no stamina doubts about her with her being related to 1m6f winners. Having already won a Derby with Motivator, I am convinced that everybody connected to the Yard think they can add to his victory in The Oaks with Sariska.

Rainbow View (5.1 from a high of 9.6) was a short priced favourite throughout the winter for the 1000 Guineas on WBX.COM but there was something different about her at Newmarket from what we saw last year. It looked to me if the edge had been taken off her and it was this edge which was the difference between her and the opposition last year.  It looks like this edge had gone and with that so does her chance in The Oaks for me.

If I was a backer or supporter of Rainbow View I would be worried about her after she worked on the course this morning. She seemed to struggle to make up the ground on Expresso Star who worked with her in preparation for the Coronation Cup. John Gosden was on hand and said he was delighted with how she had worked and was looking forward to The Oaks.

When questioned about her disappointing run in the 1000 Guineas he said that he thought that she wouldnt win when walking the course in the morning. However, as she was odds on favourite and had been throughout the winter he felt obliged to let her take her chance in the race. Im not quite sure those punters who backed her in the day of race market will be happy about that decision. By the two furlong pole, he thinks she changed her legs three times and after that she was just looked after.

The likeliest winner for me is Midday (6.4 from a high of 14.5), who has it all to do on official ratings but under master filly trainer Henry Cecil she could make the step up. She won the Lingfield Oaks Trial in impressive fashion and having won at Lingfield and finishing second at Epsom has proved she can handle the undulations.

Teddy Grimthorpe, Racing Manager to Prince Khalid Abdullah was on hand to talk about her chances. Midday worked nicely and after handling Lingfield and Epsom this season they have no concerns over the track and having quickened up well at Lingfield are confident about a good run.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 1:27 pm and is filed under The 2009 Oaks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.