Minnie Hauk wins Epsom Oaks for dominant O'Brien
Desert Flower, the short-priced favourite and 1000 Guineas winner at Newmarket last month, finished third.
Up front the Ballydoyle pair pulled a long way clear, but it took all of the final furlong for Ryan Moore's mount to get on top of long-time leader Whirl, with the 9-2 chance eventually winning by a neck.
"I've been delighted with this filly, she's got a great team around her and I'm so grateful to everybody," said Irish trainer O'Brien.
"She's a very classy filly. She was just ready to run at Chester (last month), she barely made it, but she made abnormal improvement from Chester, which we thought she might –- it was all class rather than stamina or fitness, she just has a lot of class.
"Ryan gave her a beautiful ride, he loved her the last day and he loved her again today so it's very exciting."
Moore was impressed by the performance of Minnie Hauk.
"The filly in front is a good filly and kept building the whole way and I just had to ask my filly to go to her and she quickened up very smartly and got there easily," he said.
While the Irish Oaks is on O'Brien's radar for Minnie Hauk, he also has one eye on the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in October.
He said: "I would say there is every possibility this filly could be an Arc filly as she can go a lot stronger tempo than they went today, so that means she would be happy amongst the older horses."
Earlier, in the other Group One race, the O'Brien-trained Jan Brueghel, also ridden by Moore, upset favourite Calandagan in a thrilling finish to win the Coronation Cup.
The Derby, the highlight of the Derby Festival at Epsom, southwest of London, takes place on Saturday.
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For O'Brien it completed an extraordinary two days as Minnie Hauk won the Oaks on Friday and his Jan Brueghel won the other Group One race, the Coronation Cup. It is not the first time the 55-year-old has achieved the Oaks/Derby double, last doing it in 2020 with Love (Oaks) and Serpentine who like Saturday's winner also made all to win. "It's been an incredible two days, I am delighted," said O'Brien after in his usual generous fashion he had rattled off a whole series of people who should share in the glory. "This horse is: uncomplicated, genuine and committed. He always has been." Jockey Wayne Lordan was never challenged in winning his first Derby on his ninth ride in the race considered to be the 'blue riband' of flat racing. Lordan's career was in doubt a couple of years ago after a dreadful fall in the Irish Derby in which he suffered a fractured leg and elbow and was out of action for eight months. "I had to go through a whole series of tests," he told English broadcaster ITV. "I finally got the green light, but it was rather an odd way to tell me I could ride again. "He said you are fit enough to take another fall. I knew if I had another fall it would the end of my career." 'Very disappointing' Saturday, though, represented his biggest ever victory, although it came in front of what looked to be a disappointing crowd, a smattering of spectators populating the normally packed Epsom Hill on the inside of the track. For Lordan -- "a great fella" opined O'Brien -- that mattered not a jot. "It's one of the greatest races," said the 43-year-old. "For any jockey that wants to start out, all they ever want to do is win the Derby and I work for Aidan, Ballydoyle, Coolmore so I'm in a lucky position that I get to ask a horse like this." None of the other fancied horses landed a blow and it was two outsiders that were closest at the finish -- Lazy Griff (50/1) was second with 28/1 chance Tennessee Stud, trained by O'Brien's son Joseph, third. "I knew I'd gone a good gallop, his ears were pricked and I knew he had plenty left," said Lordan. "He's a horse that we've always felt stays well so I just thought anybody that gets to me will have to stay well and it'd be tough for them." Lambourn more than made up for O'Brien's hugely disappointing race favourite, Delacroix. He was in the middle of the 18-runner field initially but as they turned for home he was third from last, his jockey Ryan Moore telling O'Brien he had been bumped and never recovered from the impact. He eventually finished ninth. There had been hopes that the Aga Khan Stud-owned Midak would deliver a poignant win in a race named this year in honour of the late Aga Khan IV, who won the race five times. However, although he raced in fourth for a long way when the moment came for jockey Mickael Barzalona to move up a gear on the French runner he went into reverse and finished 10th. They at least got their chance to run, another of the favourites Ruling Court was pulled out less than two hours before the race. It dashed hopes of him becoming the first colt (male horse) since Nijinsky in 1970 to win the classic Triple Crown -- the oldest classic St Leger in September the final leg. "It's very disappointing," trainer Charlie Appleby told ITV. "Stamina was an unknown for us and we felt that what we saw in the Guineas on quick ground and the way he quickened that day, it was not going to be the ground for him today to be testing him over a mile and a half." © 2025 AFP
France 24
a day ago
- France 24
Minnie Hauk wins Epsom Oaks for dominant O'Brien
Desert Flower, the short-priced favourite and 1000 Guineas winner at Newmarket last month, finished third. Up front the Ballydoyle pair pulled a long way clear, but it took all of the final furlong for Ryan Moore's mount to get on top of long-time leader Whirl, with the 9-2 chance eventually winning by a neck. "I've been delighted with this filly, she's got a great team around her and I'm so grateful to everybody," said Irish trainer O'Brien. "She's a very classy filly. She was just ready to run at Chester (last month), she barely made it, but she made abnormal improvement from Chester, which we thought she might –- it was all class rather than stamina or fitness, she just has a lot of class. "Ryan gave her a beautiful ride, he loved her the last day and he loved her again today so it's very exciting." Moore was impressed by the performance of Minnie Hauk. "The filly in front is a good filly and kept building the whole way and I just had to ask my filly to go to her and she quickened up very smartly and got there easily," he said. While the Irish Oaks is on O'Brien's radar for Minnie Hauk, he also has one eye on the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in October. He said: "I would say there is every possibility this filly could be an Arc filly as she can go a lot stronger tempo than they went today, so that means she would be happy amongst the older horses." Earlier, in the other Group One race, the O'Brien-trained Jan Brueghel, also ridden by Moore, upset favourite Calandagan in a thrilling finish to win the Coronation Cup. The Derby, the highlight of the Derby Festival at Epsom, southwest of London, takes place on Saturday.
France 24
2 days ago
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