O'Brien starts two in quest for another Epsom Oaks

It’s remarkable that either Aidan O’Brien or John Gosden has trained the Oaks winner the last 10 years. O’Brien has six victories during that span, Gosden four, last year’s with his son Thady down as co-trainer. Gosden is not winning the 2024 Oaks on Friday at Epsom because he has no runner in the 1 1/2-mile race. O’Brien starts two, the three-race maiden Rubies Are Red and Ylang Ylang, the favorite with English bookmakers on Wednesday.

With nine horses taken out of the race at final declarations, 11 are set to start over Epsom’s unique turning course that as of Wednesday was listed as soft. With high temperatures hovering around 60 degrees late this week and more rain in the forecast, the ground figures to play a major role.

Ylang Ylang probably has as good a chance as anyone, though it’s difficult to get excited about her at something like 2-1. The Frankel filly won her first two starts before flopping as the favorite in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud. O’Brien attributed Ylang Ylang’s last-place finish to the filly pulling too hard and failing to settle for Ryan Moore, pointing out that she had made all the running winning her first two, and still had much to learn about actual racing. Ylang Ylang improved in the Rockfel Stakes 19 days after her dud and restored her reputation winning the Group 1 Fillies Mile to cap her 2023 campaign.

Her fifth in the 1000 Guineas on May 5 was not bad at all, Ylang Ylang beaten less than one length by the upset winner. Racing from midpack and in traffic much of her trip, Ylang Ylang made progress to the final furlong and a half before going slightly flat in the last 50 yards of the straight-course mile. If one were to see the race as a stepping-stone to the Oaks, it probably served its purpose.

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The mere fact O’Brien runs Rubies Are Red in this race as a maiden is a mark of encouragement. The Galileo filly ought to handle the demanding course condition and almost certainly was the best horse, considering her brutal trip, in the Oaks Trial at Lingfield earlier this month.

Trainer Dermot Weld has one Oaks win, which came 44 years ago with Blue Wind, ridden by the late Lester Piggott. The Weld-trained Ezeliya rates a solid chance Friday. An Aga Khan homebred, Ezeliya was a second-start winner at age 2, and while her maiden tally came far from the spotlight at Cork, the filly she ran down, Wendla, won a Group 3 last weekend. Ezeliya clearly had grown both taller and broader when she returned to action April 27 winning the 1 1/4-mile Salsabil over the well-regarded Purple Lily.

Forest Fairy, unbeaten in two starts and a winner last out of the Cheshire Oaks, never has raced on soft ground but is by Waldgeist, who won the Arc over a very soft course.

◗ While the Gosdens have nothing for the Oaks, they run prohibitive favorite Emily Upjohn in Friday’s supporting feature, the Group 1 Coronation Cup. Emily Upjohn, upset by Tuesday as the favorite in the 2022 Oaks, never has raced on a course rated soft or heavy, but she did win the 2023 Coronation Cup by 1 3/4 lengths over the very good colt Westover. Emily Upjohn raced in the $6 million Sheema Classic on March 30, finishing a respectable fifth after being compromised by a glacial pace.

The O’Brien-trained Luxembourg is second choice in a five-horse field.

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