Ambience Right For Oaks

Thursday’s penultimate meeting of the Melbourne Cup carnival sees the fillies take center stage in the A$1 million G1 Crown Oaks, and Godolphin looks to Ambience (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}) to continue the current hot streak of her late sire Down Under. The bay, who has never been off the board in six starts, was an eye-catching winner of the local prep, the G2 Wakeful S. over 2000 meters, here on Saturday, and Godolphin stable jockey James McDonald told Racing.com his mount’s greatest attribute is her versatility. “She’s a pretty adaptable filly that relaxes really well and has a good turn of foot and she sustains a really good gallop, which is great sign for this type of race,” McDonald told the site. “We’re lucky that she’s able to be ridden in different ways; she box-seated last Saturday and she came from second-last at Randwick [when winning an Oct. 3 handicap]. The good thing about her is her turn of foot, so she’ll be able to get herself out of any trouble if she needs to.” Trainer John O’Shea told Racing.com, “she’s had a great preparation and has done really well in the past few days since the race so I’m really looking forward to the race. She’s a filly that can reel off really good sectionals and I think she’s adept in any sort of ground, so we’re really looking forward to the race.”

The form of Jameka (Aus) (Myboycharlie {Ire})’s G2 Moonee Valley Vase win Oct. 24 was boosted significantly last Saturday when the third-placed Tarzino (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}) ran away with the G1 Victorian Derby, and the Ciaron Maher-trained Jameka is another who is remarkably consistent, having finished off the board just once in eight starts. She was second in the G1 Thousand Guineas prior to her last-out score and the only query with her is the likely wet track. That scenario also applies to race favorite Sacred Eye (Aus) (High Chaparral {Ire}), who has finished first or second in all four starts and was the winner of the G3 Caulfield Classic over 2000 meters Oct. 17. Co-trainer David Hayes told Racing.com her pedigree suggests she could handle the off going. “High [Chaparrals] normally do and she’s a very good stayer,” Hayes told the site. “I think we’ll be OK, but there’s only one way to find out.”

“This is one of the better Oaks you’d see when you look at the fact her opposition have got form around the Derby winner,” Hayes added. “It’s hard to be too confident, but I know she’s very good. I think she probably deserves to be favorite, but it’ll be interesting to see how she handles the conditions.”