Darley Yorkshire Oaks – Thursday 18th August
The feature race on day 2 of the Sky Bet Ebor Festival is the Darley Yorkshire Oaks and here at Racing Tips, we have provided our 1-2-3 for the Group 1 contest which you can check out below, alongside an exclusive offer from Bet365: Get £50 in Free Bets when you place a £10 bet!
1. Tuesday 4/1
Aidan O’Brien has a tremendous record in this contest and will be bidding for his seventh victory in the Darley Yorkshire Oaks on Thursday afternoon. All of his previous winners have been three-year-olds which bodes particularly well for supporters of TUESDAY, who returns to the track following a short break.
The three-year-old was having her fourth start in just 55 days when running way below her best in the Irish Derby at the Curragh when last seen in June. Beaten ten lengths behind Ralph Beckett’s impressive winner Westover, Aidan O’Brien’s filly never travelled with any zest and perhaps her previous exertions had taken it’s toll at that point. Prior to that below-par effort, the daughter of Galileo had previously found the frame in the English and Irish 1000 Guineas in May before appreciating the step up in trip when edging out Emily Upjohn by a short head in a thrilling renewal of the Epsom Oaks at the start of June.
A full sister to seven-time Group 1 winner Minding, Tuesday still has plenty of scope for further improvement at this stage of her career and Aidan O’Brien is likely to have her spot on for Thursday’s feature contest following a 54-day layoff.
2. Alpinista 2/1
Despite having to concede 9lb to a few interesting three-year-olds, it’s certainly difficult to rule out Sir Mark Prescott’s thriving Frankel mare ALPINISTA, who searches for her seventh successive victory in a row and her ninth in total.
The progressive five-year-old started her winning sequence off with a narrow victory in Listed company at Goodwood last April before following up with an impressive performance at Group 2 level at Haydock 64 days later, readily landing the Lancashire Oaks by 1¼ lengths. Sent over to Germany, she continued her rapid ascent through the ranks by racking up a Group 1 hat-trick between August and November, with her standout effort coming at Hoppegarten where she defeated subsequent Arc winner Torquator Tasso by just under three lengths.
Returning from a 238-day break in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud in July, Alpinista produced a career-best effort, sticking on resolutely in the closing stages under Luke Morris to defeat a host of talented colts in the Group 1 event – a remarkable performance considering connections thought she would improve plenty for her seasonal return. Whilst she may ultimately prefer slower ground to be seen to best effect, Alpinista does have previous form on a faster surface and she’ll be looking to go one place better this year after finishing second behind Aidan O’Brien’s Love in 2020.
3. Raclette 11/1
The most intriguing runner in this field is certainly French raider RACLETTE, who has been supplemented by connections for this Group 1 contest.
Trained by Andre Fabre, the daughter of Frankel went down as a filly to follow when creating a big impression during her juvenile season, winning both of her two starts in taking style at Deauville and Chantilly. Reportedly slow to come to hand this term, she ran below her best when finishing down the field in her first two outings but has subsequently rediscovered her form. A comfortable winner of a Listed race over ten furlongs at Longchamp in June, she then stayed on strongly over an extra two furlongs to land a Group 2 at that track just last month.
Although the form of her latest victory is open to question (2nd and 4th have been well beaten since), Raclette is certainly open to further improvement at this relatively early stage of her career and she should be able to make her mark at the highest level at some stage.
