Aidan O’Brien’s Together Forever attempts to barge her away to the forefront of the Coolmore-dominated Oaks betting in York’s Musidora Stakes today but later this evening the Group Three feature at Naas can see Zannda book her own Epsom ticket.
Dermot Weld’s Aga Khan-owned filly is one of a trio of three-year-olds tackling four older horses in the €80,000 Blue Wind Stakes.
The Ballydoyle team is represented in this by the newcomer Loved but she doesn’t hold an Epsom entry. However both Zannda and Jim Bolger’s Pleascach certainly do with some bookmakers offering 20/1 odds about their Oaks chances already.
Both trainers know exactly what is required to win the classic and an impressive performance by either filly will see them take greater prominence in the Epsom picture as well as provide some valuable form-lines to other leading contenders.
Pleascach’s sole start of the season so far saw her finish runner up to Bocca Baciata, a filly she could face again in Sunday week’s Irish 1,000 Guineas which takes place a dozen days before Epsom’s Oaks.
Considering the subsequent Cheshire Oaks heroine Diamondandrubies was behind both of them in that Salsabil Stakes at Navan, there’s an opportunity to examine cross-channel strengths and weaknesses among the Oaks favourites, just as there is with Zannda.
First-time blinkers
The Weld filly finished a length and a half off Jazzi Top in Newmarket’s Pretty Polly Stakes on quick ground recently but returns to a softer surface here and, significantly, is also equipped with first-time blinkers.
Avenue Gabrial looks best of the older fillies and provides a link to Found through her Athasi third. But, in an Epsom picture dominated by Coolmore, the newly blinkered Zannda can earn the chance to try and become the Aga Khan's first official Oaks winner, after Alisya's controversial 1989 disqualification.
The Group One winner Together Forever will attempt to give her trainer a first Musidora success at the start of a York meeting that looks like proving crucial in terms of establishing a Derby pecking order.
O’Brien will test both John F Kennedy and Ol’ Man River in tomorrow’s Dante where they will tackle the leading Epsom contenders, Jack Hobbs and Elm Park, among an eight-strong field.
‘Personal best’
Before that however, Together Forever will have to concede a 4lb Group One penalty to four opponents including Star Of Seville who is already a 10/1 shot for Oaks glory although her jockey Frankie Dettori warned: “She is taking on a Group One winner so needs a personal best.”
Some other Oaks clues could even emerge from tonight’s concluding maiden at Naas where Zannda’s stable companion Chinese Light lines up.
This one was a hot favourite to beat Diamondsandrubies at Tipperary in April and afterwards disappointed, albeit when a number of Weld horses went through a rare dip in form, behind the hugely impressive Fluff at Navan.
However a peak-form Chinese Light should prove to beat while on soft ground David Wachman's Sexy Legs is fancied to reverse form with her Cork rival Ohh Lala in the premier handicap.
