A good curtain-raiser meeting at Sandown on Thursday saw good wins by Opinion Poll in the Henry II and Carlton House in the Brigadier Gerard.
Dettori sat patiently on Opinion Poll and waited for the last 100m to press the button and easily get away from his opposition in the Henry II. That looked to us like a possible Melbourne Cup prep. Ibicenco just got second ahead of leader Chiberta King but the winner was in a different league.
Ryan Moore had to be very patient on Carlton House and all credit to the horse who was not phased by being blocked for a way clear a couple of times but then when clear produced a nice finish to head off the fast finishing Sagamore with Hunter's Light third. Colombian led and suffered from the lack of cover.
And so it is on to the Oaks program, starting off with the Princess Elizabeth G3 for 3y+ f&m. Joviality is 11/4 for Buick-Gosden, German raider Navarra Queen from Peter Schiergen's yard resumed at Chantilly on soft and should like this better, making 8/1 value, and Goodwood winner Boastful on 10/1 could figure.
The Diomed Stakes G3 for 3+ is over the 1600m equivalent with Sir Mark Prescott's Worthadd on 11/10 following a win in Baden-Baden in May. Prescott has always been very good at placing his horses so respect. Side Glance is 4/1 and there's 11/2 available for Chester winner Macret.
The Oaks itself has 14 starters with 6 O'Briens although one may not go depending on the ground. Their Maybe is on 5/2 with Joseph in the saddle and looking for a potential double with Camelot in the Derby tomorrow. This isn't as straight forward. The Fugue caught the eye recently and is on 3/1, but we like the fact that Vow won over the trip at the Lingfield Trial and are happy with the 5/1. Colima and Toptempo, the rank outsider, are the other two who have run the trip before - worth putting in multiples.
