O'Brien packed for Irish Oaks

Aidan O'Brien saddles six of the 14 runners who will line up for the $789,000 Irish Oaks at the Curragh on Sunday, the most prominent among them the English Oaks runner-up Moonstone, a Dalakhani filly who is the 2-1 favorite for the 1 1/2-mile classic even though she is still a maiden.

A half-sister to L'Ancresse, runner-up in the Irish Oaks and Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, Moonstone was 3 3/4 lengths behind Look Here at Epsom, but she was 2 3/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher Katiyra that day.

Trained by John Oxx for the Aga Khan, Katiyra is a Peintre Celebre-Darshaan cross who will certainly stay the course Sunday.

The selection, though, is the French Oaks runner-up Gagnoa, trained in France by Andre Fabre. She was three lengths second to the indomitable Zarkava in the French Oaks, form that looks better than anything else.