Royal filly Treasure one of four Betfred Oaks runners for dual winner Beckett

Ralph Beckett will saddle no fewer than four talented fillies in Friday’s Betfred Oaks, including live outsider Treasure for King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Beckett, who credits Look Here’s win in the 2008 Oaks with changing his life, was originally leaning towards the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot for Treasure, who was bred by Queen Elizabeth II and was racing for only the second time when a close fourth in the Lingfield Oaks Trial.

However, the prospect of easy ground has been a key factor in his change of heart and the Mastercraftsman filly joins the stable’s Lingfield winner You Got To Me, its Cheshire Oaks winner Forest Fairy and the Cheshire Oaks third Seaward in a bigger team than Beckett has ever saddled in any race, let alone a Classic.

Beckett won a second Oaks in 2013 with another outsider Talent, who beat her much shorter-priced stable-companion Secret Gesture into second, but he has been no closer than fourth with his seven runners since. 

This feels like our best chance

He said: “We’ve done quite well in the race before, but it’s a long time since I won it last with Talent, and since then nobody but Aidan O’Brien and the Gosdens has won. We’ve had plenty of tries since, but this feels like our best chance. I think the market has them about right in terms of preference, although it got it wrong in 2013. 

“I may have had three runners in a race a few times, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never had four before. Let’s hope one of them is competitive!”

He added: “Forest Fairy was very backward and immature and she had an issue at two and so didn’t come to us until October. We were surprised that she was able to win like that first time out (by six lengths at Wolverhampton), and then because her work on turf at home was good we decided to take her to Chester for the trial. You would hope she’d come forward again for that, based on her inexperience.

She’s trained very well since then, and ground on the easy side will be in her favour

“We’ll do a few things differently to manage You Got To Me, and we’ll be putting some different kit in her mouth. She’s a tall, sparely made filly who doesn’t carry a lot of condition, so she doesn’t need much training, but she appears to take her racing well. She did well to hold on at Lingfield after going so hard, although Aidan’s filly Rubies Are Red came from Brighton virtually and will be tough to beat.

“Seaward has trained well since the Cheshire Oaks and I was quite keen to come. I’d be less keen on her chance if the ground is slower than good. As for Treasure, we had been edging more towards the Ribblesdale, but we’ve had a change of heart. She’s trained very well since then, and ground on the easy side will be in her favour. It will be very exciting to have a runner in a Classic for the King and the Queen.”

Aidan O’Brien has won the Oaks six times in the last ten years, and ten times in all, and he saddles last year’s Fillies’ Mile winner Ylang Ylang, who made a most satisfactory reappearance when a very close fifth over an inadequate trip in the QIPCO 1000 Guineas, as well as Rubies Are Red, who finished like a train and was beaten only half a length in the Lingfield trial.

Ylang Ylang has particularly strong claims and looks a worthy favourite, but her compatriot Ezeliya also merits close attention. Ezeliya’s veteran trainer Dermot Weld is a much less frequent visitor to Epsom than O’Brien, but he won the Oaks with Blue Wind way back in 1981 and he added a Derby with Harzand 35 years later.

The Oaks was Weld’s first Classic winner and Blue Wind’s runaway success retains a special place in his affections, even though he has since won major races all over the world.

He said: “I’ve had 24 winners of English and Irish Classics, but Blue Wind was the first and so that was a very special day for me. She was a very good filly who went on to win the Irish Oaks and ended the season the champion filly of Europe. She was a big, strong filly and she won by seven lengths from Madam Gay, who went on to win the Prix de Diane.

“I’ve only had a few runners at Epsom, but it’s been lucky for me. I also won the Derby with Harzand and we were second in the Oaks with Tarfasha, who was beaten only by another very high-class filly in Taghrooda.”

Ezeliya put herself firmly in the Oaks picture by winning the Group 3 Salsabil Stakes at Navan (Caught U Looking fourth) and Weld said: “The form was let down a little bit in the Irish 1000 Guineas, but I’m satisfied with my filly. She’s a medium-sized filly with quality and I expect her to run a good race. She’s never been over a mile and a half but she gives every impression that the trip will suit. We hope it will, but I can assure you she isn’t short of pace.”

Andrew Balding also enjoyed his first Classic success in the Oaks, with Casual Look in 2003, and his Musidora Stakes winner Secret Satire will be just his third runner in the race since. The York race has a good record as an Oaks trial, and Secret Satire might be under rated owing to her long odds that day.

Charlie Appleby has two Derby wins to his name but he has yet to win either of the fillies’ Classics. He will be represented by the Nell Gwyn Stakes neck runner-up Dance Sequence, who was only ninth afterwards when expected to go close in the QIPCO 1000 Guineas and is much better than that run suggests.

A field of 12 is completed by Making Dreams, the six-length winner of a Group 3 run over an extended 1m2f on heavy ground at Saint-Cloud and a stable-mate of Sunday’s Irish 1000 Guineas winner Fallen Angel, and War Chimes, who finished a place ahead of her when neither ran particularly well in a Group 2 at Longchamp more recently.