Saturday sees the latest Classic of the season take place at the Curragh as the County Kildare track stages the Irish Oaks.
Run over the same 1m4f trip as the Epsom event and offering €500,000 in prize money, the Irish Oaks is a key contest for the most talented three-year-old fillies in training. 14 go to post in 2024 in what promises to be an intriguing renewal.
Team Ballydoyle
Landing a first win with Alexandrova in 2006 and a seventh with Savethelastdance in 2023, Aidan O’Brien is already the most successful trainer in the history of the race and sends a three-pronged attack into battle.
Content
By Galileo and out of the Group 1 winning sprinter Meccas Angel, Content is a typically beautifully bred sort from the Coolmore operation. A Group 3 winner as a juvenile, she has yet to get her head in front in 2024 but posted her best effort yet when third in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes over 1m2f at this track in June. She will need to step up on that, but the additional distance may be in her favour.
Port Fairy
Unlike Content, Port Fairy showed little during her juvenile season – one start yielding a 19½-length defeat in a Maiden. 2024 has been much more like it. Breaking her duck at Dundalk, she went down by just a head in the Cheshire Oaks before storming home to win the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot. Ryan Moore opts to ride Content, but it must have been a close decision.
Rubies Are Red
As a full sister to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Found, Rubies Are Red was one of the more interesting O’Brien fillies heading into 2024. It’s fair to say that she hasn’t quite delivered. Having shown bags of ability to grab second from an impossible position in the Lingfield Oaks Trial, she then disappointed when ninth in The Oaks and the Ribblesdale Stakes. A 12/1 shot at Epsom, she is likely to go off at around three times that price here.
Best of the Other Irish Runners
O’Brien aside, only four other Irish trainers have won this event since 2000. However, the 2024 edition has a particularly open look to it, and if someone other than O’Brien keeps the prize on home soil, the following appear most likely:
Lope De Lilas
Trained by dominant National Hunt maestro Willie Mullins, Lope De Lilas is one of the most lightly raced runners in the field, with only two previous outings. Her latest effort saw the daughter of Lope De Vega produce a striking display to comfortably see off the opposition in a Maiden event at Leopardstown and book her Oaks ticket. She’s up in class but may add a little gloss to Wathnan Racing’s golden summer.
Hanalia
Successful six times as a jockey, Johnny Murtagh is yet to claim Irish Oaks glory as a trainer. Bidding to change all that in 2024 is this Aga Khan-owned daughter of Sea The Stars. Only making her debut in March, Hanalia has made rapid strides to win two or three starts – most recently when defying trouble in running to land a 1m2½f Listed event at Naas.
The British Challenge
With 11 wins since 2000, the British raiders have an excellent record in this event. The following trio make the trip across the Irish Sea in 2024.
War Chimes
David Menusier’s filly boasts excellent form from 2023, headlined by a five-length thrashing of recent Grand Prix de Paris winner Sosie. Whilst she has yet to score this season, she has largely run with credit, including when third in the Epsom Oaks last time out. A repeat of that effort should put her in the mix.
Lava Stream
Lava Stream began 2024 in a Class 5 handicap, running off a rating of 74 – it’s fair to say the David O’Meara filly has made rapid strides in her three-year-old campaign. Getting up late to win a Listed event at Goodwood two starts ago, she was last sighted travelling like a dream before going down by a neck to Port Fairy in the Ribblesdale Stakes.
You Got To Me
Ralph Beckett knows what it takes to bag a fillies Classic, having won the 2008 and 2013 editions of the Epsom Oaks. With Irish Derby and Pretty Polly Stakes wins on his CV, he is also no stranger to Group 1 success in Ireland. Lingfield Oaks Trial winner You Got To Me is the filly selected to fly the flag for the Hampshire-based handler in 2024. Fourth at Epsom and in the Ribblesdale, she didn’t help her chance when going off like an express train in that Ascot event. The first-time tongue tie goes on here, which may help her see the trip out better if making her usual bold bid from the front.
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