Patience is needed for the Oaks - which of Friday's runners might be about to end 43 years of hurt?
Getting a live Oaks runner to the start is a specialist business. Just two stables, Clarehaven and Ballydoyle, have produced all the winners over the past ten years – obvious stars such as Minding, Love and Soul Sister as well as heroines who were harder to see coming such as Anapurna and Qualify.
John and Thady Gosden are unrepresented this time; evidently, they're not interested in having a runner for the sake of seeing their names in the racecard. Does that mean the way is clear for Aidan O'Brien to take the fillies' Classic for the 11th time?
Not so fast! While O'Brien has a couple of runners with obvious credentials, there are ten classy-looking sorts in opposition, three running for trainers who know what it means to win an Oaks, even if the experience wasn't especially recent.
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Published on inDerby festival
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