19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Joseph O'Brien-trained Glen To Glen may be best bet at Curragh as Irish Oaks line-up fails to inspire
Aside from red-hot favourite Minnie Hauk, there is little to write home about in today's Juddmonte Irish Oaks (3.40) at the Kildare track with just seven runners contesting the €500,000 contest while O'Brien's brilliant filly is the only one of the septet to win last time out.
Ryan Moore's mount bids to become the 16th filly to complete the Epsom-Curragh Oaks double and will achieve that feat barring an upset of epic proportions, with no overseas raiders also taking away some necessary spice.
Fifteen raiders have landed this prize since 1999, but their absence should make it elementary for the daughter of Frankel, especially given that the form of her Epsom success has worked out nicely with runner-up Whirl (also her stablemate) winning the Group One Pretty Polly Stakes on her next start.
A starting price around 1/6 makes this a prohibitive betting heat, though, as Minnie Hauk bids to follow in the famous footsteps of top-class fillies like Ouija Board (2004), Snow Fairy (2010) and Enable (2017) and O'Brien saddling a quartet of runners adds little appeal.
The most likely surprise would come in the shape of Wemightakedlongway, which has just 6lbs to find with the market leader on official ratings, and Joseph O'Brien's charge did inflict the only defeat of Minnie Hauk's four-race career on her debut in Cork last October.
Dylan Browne McMonagle's mount has been put firmly in the rear-view mirror since then, though, having finished fourth behind her at Epsom – before filling the same spot in the Pretty Polly – and it's nearly impossible to oppose the jolly en route to even bigger things later this season.
The Group Two Gain Railway Stakes (2.35), which was controversially rerouted here from its traditional spot on Irish Derby day, is similarly uninspiring with just four going to post and only three trainers represented in a race with a star-studded roll of honour.
Aidan O'Brien's True Love bids to become the first filly to take this event since Camargo in '98 and Moore will take some stopping aboard the daughter of No Nay Never after her stylish Queen Mary success at Royal Ascot last month.
There are some other decent pattern contests to get stuck into across the weekend at the Curragh, but the best bet of the meeting may be the Joseph O'Brien-trained Glen To Glen in tomorrow's three-year-old handicap (3.05).
He ran a cracker when fourth in a Royal Ascot handicap on his first start for the Kilkenny trainer and there is more to come from Browne McMonagle's mount off a mark of 90.
