Trainer Ralph Beckett’s Look Here was another outsider to win the Oaks, victorious at 33/1 in 2008, but he has a much more fancied contender for the 2013 event in Secret Gesture. The Galileo-sired filly finished second in her first maiden race last October. Later that same month she won her second maiden race before returning this season and running out an easy 10-length winner of the Oaks Trial Stakes at Lingfield Park earlier in May.
Another fancied Galileo filly is Moth for Aidan O’Brien, who finished third to Sky Lantern in the Qipco 1000 Guineas. She travelled towards the rear of the field for much of the race but finished the mile very strongly to take third place, despite encountering some minor interference. The extra four furlongs in the Oaks could well benefit O’Brien’s filly.
Banoffee is unbeaten in two races and won the Listed Cheshire Oaks over one mile three furlongs round Chester in early May. As such, the Epsom Oaks’ distance should be no issue and she seemed to handle the cornering round the Roodee satisfactorily.
Ralph Beckett has a strong second contender in the race in the form of Talent. By New Approach, Talent won the Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket in May, which is a recognised trial for the Epsom Oaks. There is an interesting line of form from the Pretty Polly with William Haggas’s Lady Nouf. Talent beat Lady Nouf by half a length in the Pretty Polly. Lady Nouf had previously beaten Secret Gesture by a length in the Leicester maiden in which Secret Gesture had made her racecourse debut.
