RACING NEWS:HORSE RACING Ireland got a €170,000 boost to its hard-pressed prize fund yesterday when four supplementary entries, including the Epsom heroine Snow Fairy, were added to the list of possible runners for Sunday's Darley Irish Oaks at the Curragh.
Ed Dunlop’s Snow Fairy team paid out €42,500 to put her in with a chance of joining Sariska (2009), Alexandrova (2006) and Ouija Board (2004) as a dual-Oaks winner in the last decade.
However, Godolphin splashed out two supplementary fees for their Ribblesdale Stakes winner Hibaayeb and also the Doncaster maiden winner Miss Jean Brodie.
Sheikh Hamdan’s Eldalil, runner-up in the Ribblesdale, and trained by the most successful trainer in Irish Oaks history, Michael Stoute, was also supplemented into a final entry of 17 fillies at yesterday’s forfeit stage.
The entry fees don’t impact on the €425,000 prize money total for the Oaks and the Curragh manager Paul Hensey explained yesterday: “Supplementary fees go to HRI’s overall prize-fund budget. It has no effect on the Oaks and isn’t ring-fenced for the Curragh either.”
Snow Fairy won a thrilling renewal of the Epsom Oaks last month when weaving her way through the field under a brilliant Ryan Moore ride to beat the 25 to 1 outside Meeznah by a neck with Aidan O’Brien’s Remember When two lengths back in third.
Both fillies look set for another crack at Snow Fairy and while O’Brien has five other hopefuls for a race he has won three times in a row between 2006-08, Irish-born trainer David Lanigan is hoping Meeznah could secure him a breakthrough Group One victory.
The son of Tullamaine Castle Stud boss, Bob Lanigan, is in just his third full season with a licence in Newmarket having previously been an assistant to Henry Cecil.
Aidan O’Brien confirmed yesterday Remember When will be his main challenger despite a relatively lacklustre run behind Chinese White in the Pretty Polly Stakes.
“We were expecting better and we’ve been easy on her since. She was a little bit quiet in the race, a little relaxed, and maybe she had some little thing coming on her,” O’Brien said.
“We thought at Epsom she just about got the mile and a half and that a mile and a quarter would suit her better. But then in the Pretty Polly she raced like a mile and a half would suit better. We’ll have to see,” he added.
Ground conditions on the round course at the Curragh yesterday were good to firm although there is an unsettled weather forecast for the next few days. “It is supposed to get brighter and fresher later in the week but it’s guesswork what way the ground is going to be for the weekend,” Paul Hensey reported.
Local trainer Kevin Prendergast has two Oaks options in Crystal Gal and Brazilian Beauty although the latter also has the option of running in the Listed Kilboy Estates Stakes on the same card. Jim Bolger, an Oaks winner with Margarula in 2002 and Give Thanks in 1983, has entered Akdarena.
Meanwhile, Overturn is as short as 7 to 1 favourite for the Guinness Galway Hurdle at the end of the month as trainer Donald McCain confirmed yesterday he will have his first runner at the famous Ballybrit festival.
McCain, son of Red Rum’s trainer Ginger, is pursuing a remarkable double with Overturn who turned last month’s Northumberland Plate into a procession at Newcastle. Overturn is also the winner of this year’s Grade Two Scottish Champion Hurdle.
“He is in great nick which is why we are going again. This seems an obvious race to go for,” the Cheshire-based trainer said yesterday.
IRISH OAKS BETTING(Paddy Power): 11-4 Snow Fairy, 7-2 Hibaayeb, 5 Meeznah and Rosanara, 7 Eldalil, 8 Akdarena, 9 Remember When, 25 Bar.
