Thursday's G1 Darley Yorkshire Oaks should be easy pickings for Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) if she reproduces the form of her last three outings, but history proves that there is no such thing as a certainty and John Gosden is feeling the weight of the burden that naturally comes with such a runner. Just three years ago, the same stable's Taghrooda (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) was turned over by Ballydoyle's Tapestry (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) when the 1-5 favourite to supplement her successes in the G1 Epsom Oaks and G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S., so nothing is a given. Enable has added the G1 Irish Oaks to those other prestige events and has a feel of invulnerability at this trip, but her trainer is understandably cautious. “We always wanted to go to this race. It was meant to be Irish Oaks to Yorkshire Oaks. She took the Irish Oaks so much in her stride that then the King George came into play,” he explained. “When you are lucky enough to have a Golden Horn in the yard or a filly of Enable's ilk–like Taghrooda–it's a great buzz. But of course with it comes added pressures–never forget that.”
There are other class acts in this line up, with the older brigade including the G1 Pretty Polly S. winner Nezwaah (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) who tackles this distance for the first time. On the bare form of her 3 1/4-length defeat of Rain Goddess (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in that Curragh contest on July 2, which followed a facile score in Ayr's Listed Rothesay S. also over 10 furlongs on May 24, Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's homebred has something to find with Enable but there have been positive vibes surrounding her in the lead-up to this. “She is in great form and is training well,” trainer Roger Varian said. “I think Enable will be very hard to beat and there some other fillies with very good CV's in the line-up. I think Nezwaah is the one in the field that none of us really know how far her potential will go at this level. She won a listed race at Ayr in a canter then had them all well beaten in the Pretty Polly last time out. If there is a bit more to come from her it could be with the step up to a mile and a half. It is very exciting. She had three entries in the Romanet, the Juddmonte and the Yorkshire Oaks and this is the race myself and the owner thought was best for her. We trained her mother [Ferdoos] and she stayed really well. Andrea [Atzeni] said after the Curragh she would stay a mile and a half. I am really positive that this is the right race to run in against her own sex.”
Sir Michael Stoute will be rueing Wednesday's rain for last year's GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf heroine Queen's Trust (GB) (Dansili {GB}), who seems to be dogged with bad fortune this term in that regard. Allowed to take her chance on desperate ground in Goodwood's G1 Nassau S. on Aug. 3, Cheveley Park Stud's homebred was last of six there and is best judged on her prior fourth in the G1 Prince of Wales's S. at Royal Ascot June 21. Stoute, who is looking for a 10th renewal, also saddles Ballymacoll's Abingdon (Street Cry {Ire}), who is a relative of the dual Yorkshire Oaks heroine Islington (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) but who is not in that league and needs to find major improvement off a latest third in the G2 Prix de Pomone over 12 1/2 furlongs at Deauville on Aug. 6. “Queen's Trust hasn't had the rub of the green this year,” Stoute explained. “In the Prince of Wales's, she got badly interfered with and was really coming home. Then the ground was too soft for her in the Nassau. But she is in good shape–she'll run a big one.” Of his other charge, he added, “Abingdon is solid. She's won at the track–the Galtres last year–she has been running well this year and I hope she'll be in the frame. I'll be happy with that. Good is no problem, but with her, she doesn't want it softer than good.”
Denford Stud's 'TDN Rising Star' Coronet (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) is a potent second string for the Gosden stable and had Ballydoyle's Alluringly (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) behind when taking the G2 Ribblesdale S. at Royal Ascot on June 22 and when fourth in the Irish Oaks. Sixth in both those races, the Epsom Oaks third Alluringly has since won the Listed Hurry Harriet S. over an extended nine furlongs at Gowran Park on Aug. 16 and is impossible to put a line through coming from her stable. “We're going to give her another go over a mile and a half,” Aidan O'Brien said. “She won in Gowran very nicely. That was only a few days ago, but she seems to have come out of it well.”
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