3 minute read
As an hors d'oeuvres for the world's most famous Flat race, today's Investec Oaks is haute cuisine.
The winner may not match tomorrow's Investec Derby victor in terms of value, but she will be one of the stars of the 2015 racing scene and a prized jewel as a broodmare. Naming her in advance of the race is but one conundrum today for Britain's newspaper tipsters.
Crystal Zvezda, who is trained by Sir Michael Stoute, proves a popular choice, and is named as the likely winner by Newsboy in the Daily Mirror, Templegate in The Sun and Sam Turner in the Daily Mail.
The Scout of the Daily Express sides with Legatissimo, as does Patrick Weaver in the Daily Star, but a headline above Mark Howe's review of the race in The Independent states, 'Lady Of Dubai can deny Guineas winner Legatissimo the double'.
The Racing Post hands over its front page to Legatissimo, who will be ridden by Ryan Moore. 'Ryan ready to roar' is the paper's lead headline, but its most famous tipster, Tom Segal (Pricewise), puts his faith in Al Naamah at an early-morning price of 18/1.
The Sun's Claude Duval ponders the chances of maiden Bellajeu and writes: "[Her] Dashing trainer Ralph Beckett has a Classic way with the girls." Duval quotes Beckett saying: "Maybe we are tilting at windmills, but I'm keen to take the chance."
The Guardian prints the runners for just two races from today's Epsom card - the Investec Diomed Stakes and Investec Oaks - but reporter Greg Wood rounds up the pick of the news ahead of the two-day meeting, leading with the shortening in price of Investec Derby favourite Golden Horn. Wood quotes that colt's trainer, John Gosden, repeating concerns that the ground may prove quicker than ideal for his other runner, Jack Hobbs. "He is a talented individual who I hope will be racing at four and five," Gosden says.
Alan Lee of The Times also conveys Gosden's Jack Hobbs concerns, and picks up on the way Epsom has made its Investec Oaks Day more appealing to the public. Lee quotes the course's managing director, Rupert Trevelyan, saying: "Friday is back in a big way."
The joys and tribulations of being in charge of Epsom's famous track are conveyed in an interview between The Daily Telegraph's Marcus Armytage and clerk of the course Andrew Cooper. An Act of Parliament obliges the racecourse to keep seven crossings (rights of way) open all year, but on the plus side, Epsom is easier to water than Sandown, another of Cooper's clerking responsibilities. He tells Armytage: "Epsom's 100 per cent chalk under about five or six inches of top soil. You can put water on all over, but Sandown is a mix of sand and clay, and you might put 10mm on in places, and none in others."
Away from this year's famous race, the Daily Express and The Daily Telegraph carry the tale of Harry 'Happy' Wimblett, who won a soldiers' running race along Epsom's straight on Investec Derby Day in 1915 - the horse race took place at Newmarket because of WWI. Epsom Downs had been given over to the military as a place for wounded soldiers to recuperate, and a group that were well enough to run lined up for their own version of the horse race - a grainy photograph in each newspaper captures the moment, another in Epsom's rich and diverse history.
