Irish Oaks Tips: Make That A Hauk Two-Er As Minnie Set For Second Oaks

The latest of the British and Irish Classics takes place at the Curragh on Saturday. The Irish Oaks has assembled a small field as Minnie Hauk looks to double up on her Epsom triumph as Joe Napier previews this year’s renewal from a betting angle.

There is only one place to start and that is with the heavily odds-on Minnie Hauk. Her price is reflective of the form of her Epsom Oaks triumph coupled with the abysmal field assembled for this Curragh equivalent in which three of her six rivals are stablemates who would be part of different work routines on the Ballydoyle gallops.

A separate stablemate, Whirl, was runner-up to her at Epsom and has franked that form superbly since, winning the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes against older fillies and mares next time out. This 1m4f trip suits Ryan Moore’s mount ideally and she will win barring two factors: a bizarrely trappy tactical race, which seems unlikely, or heavy rainfall brings Wemightakedlongway into contention.

For Aidan’s son Joseph, the daughter of Australia was fourth in the Oaks when unable to lead, but then ran a very game race when fourth again in the Pretty Polly. She got closer to Whirl that day despite being outpaced from an early stage, so may still be improving, albeit the rain would have to fall to narrow the gap between herself and Minnie Hauk.

The rest surely have no chance of victory. The punting angle might be to back one of the aforementioned Ballydoyle contingent for the forecast should Wemightakedlongway try too hard to battle Minnie Hauk. Island Hopping could be the filly for that, as she was a close third behind Royal Ascot winner Garden Of Eden at Naas in May before providing pacemaking duties for the same stablemate at the royal meeting. She did not stay upped to 1m6f last time, but does see this distance out.

Merrily was last in the French 1000 Guineas and French Oaks, yet is fourth favourite of seven here. That tells you all you need to know about the strength in depth, and her and Butterfly Wings will be playing the hooven version of rock, paper, scissors to avoid being the primary pacemaker here.

Subsonic is third favourite despite being a two-race maiden making her first start out of maiden company. She is well-bred and promises to be suited by this, having only been ½-1-length behind Minnie Hauk on debut last October. Her return lacked that pizzazz though and much still needs to be proven while Bay Colony has frame potential in this weak a line-up, especially with some rain. That will likely require the pacemakers to burn out and the protagonists to have swanned off into the distance though.