Folk goes after UAE Oaks

Folk, the front-running winner of the UAE 1000 Guineas on Feb. 15, will attempt to stretch her speed an extra furlong to 1 1/8 miles at Nad Al Sheba Thursday night in the listed $250,000 UAE Oaks.

History and circumstance suggest she will get the job done. A half-sister to Danuta, winner of the UAE Guineas and Oaks double in 2003, Folk is a Quiet American filly who scored a 4 3/4-length victory over five of her Thursday rivals going a mile in this year's 1000 Guineas. Folk was a 10 1/4-length winner in her third maiden try at Aqueduct on Nov. 26 when she was trained by Tom Albertrani for Darley. She was switched to Sheikh Mohammed's son Hamdan this winter to be trained by the UAE's leading conditioner, Ismail Mohammed.

Folk was 15-1 on the morning line for Pool 2 of the Kentucky Oaks Future Wager, which opens Thursday and runs through Sunday.

The second- through sixth-place finishers in the UAE 1000 - Greetings, Samba Reggae, Desert Fight, Miss Chatty and Carillon - will try Folk again, but they all look up against it. In addition to Danuta, two other Godolphin fillies have completed the Guineas-Oaks double at Nad Al Sheba. The most recent was Satin Kiss two years ago, but Folk may more closely resemble Imperial Gesture, who turned the trick in 2002 before returning to America to win the Gazelle and Beldame handicaps.

Mohammed will give a leg up on Folk to Kerrin McEvoy, the Australian jockey who also serves as Godolphin's second-string rider.

Godolphin's first call jock, Frankie Dettori, has the ride on the Mohammed-trained Samba Reggae.

The Oaks is the highlight of an eight-race card worth $1,330,000 that will be the last at Nad Al Sheba before Dubai World Cup Night on March 31.