Darley Yorkshire Oaks and Betting Offers

Darley Yorkshire Oaks Preview: Tips, Betting Offers and Odds

The main event on day 2 of York’s famous Ebor meeting is the The Darley Yorkshire Oaks. Here we highlight some of the best odds and offers around and provide our betting tips for what is always a cracking contest.

First run in 1849 this 1m4f Group 1 contest is open to fillies and mare aged three and older and now offers £340,000 in total prize money. If you want a bet on the Yorkshire Oaks, why not see what promotions the best racing betting sites are offering?

Yorkshire Oaks Tips and Betting Offers, 3:35 at York, 22nd August 2019

The Yorkshire Oaks is one of the most prestigious races for fillies and mares of the British racing season. It plays an important role in York’s Ebor Festival as the feature race of day two and has been won by a string of top quality horses. This Group 1 is usually contested by a small yet select field but it’s still a bit of a shame that only four horses will compete in this year’s edition. Still, we have another renewal of the rivalry between Enable and Magical so it remains a race to watch closely.

Enable Should Have Enough for Magical Again

Aidan O’Brien has trained some of the very best horses on the flat of all time so he is a very good judge. It says a lot that he thinks so highly of Magical who would surely have had an even better career than she’s achieved already were it not for Enable.

The Yorkshire Oaks will be the fourth time that these two mares have met and on each occasion it’s Enable who has come out on top. Magical has earned a huge amount of credit for pushing Enable close including in the Breeders’ Cup Turf last year and the recent Coral-Eclipse. However, she’s never been able to get the better of John Gosden’s superstar and the bookies don’t expect anything to change in that regard on Thursday.

Enable is the firmest of favourites at a best price of 1/3 with Paddy Power. The lack of a contest in the betting always takes a certain something away from a race but this is one occasion on which punters can quite happily either take the prices available or sit back and enjoy.

Can Enable’s Stablemate Ruin the Party?

Frankie Dettori has played down talk of the Yorkshire Oaks being a one horse race. He says that Enable will need to be at her best if she is to win because of the quality of her opposition. That’s probably true as Enable will face a tough enough test from one of her stablemates, Lah Ti Dar.

The four-year-old has struggled for consistency as she seems to only find her best performances at a few tracks. York is one of those tracks where Lah Ti Dar has run very well before albeit at a much lower level. She returns to York a better, stronger horse than last year and could spring a huge surprise.

Betting Predictions

The Yorkshire Oaks will be Enable’s final appearance in Britain before she ends her career in France in October when she bids to become the first horse to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in the race’s history. Everybody at York will want to give her the send off she deserves and there really is little chance of her going out with anything other than a win. The 1/3 that Paddy Power are quoting on Enable doesn’t look appealing on first viewing but it is a fair enough reading of the race.

With only four competitors, each way betting is not available for the Yorkshire Oaks. However, those looking for another option than Enable should consider a small stakes play on Lah Ti Dar to win at 14/1 with bet365.

Darley Yorkshire Oaks Previous Winners

  • 2018 – Sea Of Class – jockey James Doyle, trainer William Haggas
  • 2017 – Enable – jockey Frankie Dettori, trainer John Gosden
  • 2016 – Seventh Heaven – jockey Colm O’Donoghue, trainer Aidan O’Brien
  • 2015 – Pleascach – jockey Kevin Manning, trainer Jim Bolger
  • 2014 – Tapestry – jockey Ryan Moore, trainer Aidan O’Brien
  • 2013 – The Fugue – jockey William Buick, trainer John Gosden
  • 2012 – Shareta – jockey Christophe Lemaire, trainer Alain de Royer-Dupré
  • 2011 – Blue Bunting – jockey Frankie Dettori, trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni
  • 2010 – Midday – jockey Tom Queally, trainer Henry Cecil
  • 2009 – Dar Re Mi – jockey Jimmy Fortune, trainer John Gosden
  • 2008 – Lush Lashes – jockey Kevin Manning , trainer Jim Bolger
  • 2007 – Peeping Fawn – jockey Johnny Murtagh, trainer Aidan O’Brien
  • 2006 – Alexandrova – jockey Michael Kinane, trainer Aidan O’Brien

Race History

Since its inaugural running back in 1849, the conditions of this race have been identical to that of its famous Epsom counterpart for much of its lifespan i.e. a 1m4f event for three year old fillies’. That all changed in 1991 when older fillies and mares were permitted to enter for the first time in the races history. Whatever the age of the runners this has always been a top class affair and has been ranked as a Group 1 contest ever since ratings were introduced in 1971.

Numerous star fillies have entered the winners’ enclosure here, with the English and Irish Oaks winner Fair Salinia (1978), Oaks and St Leger heroine Sun Princess (1983), and the brilliant three time classic winner User Friendly (1992) all featuring on the roll of honour.

With the introduction of older runners to the field it became possible for a filly to land this prize on more than one occasion. As of 2015 two have achieved this feat. Our Royale won in 1993 and 1994 for Luca Cumani and Islington recorded back to back successes for Sir Michael Stoute in 2002 and 2003.

Fred Archer’s remarkable run of eight wins between the years of 1875 and 1886 sets the benchmark amongst the jockeys here. Seven of these wins were for Scottish born, Newmarket based trainer Mathew Dawson. With nine wins in the race in total, Dawson is tied for the lead with Sir Michael Stoute, who recorded a ninth win of his own when Quiff prevailed in 2004.