Leading racing journalist Graham Dench, who has spent half a century in the industry, with his list of the ten best winning performances in the Britain’s senior fillies’ Classic since 1973
1. OH SO SHARP (1985)
beat Triptych by six lengths
ch f Kris - Oh So Fair (Graustark)
Trainer: Henry Cecil
Jockey: Steve Cauthen
Owner: Sheikh Mohammed
Career record: 7 wins from 9 starts
Epsom Derby: Ten greatest winning performances of the last 50 years
What a week it was for Henry Cecil and Steve Cauthen when Slip Anchor and Oh So Sharp completed the Epsom double by an aggregate 13 lengths. Oh So Sharp was a hot favourite following her win in the 1000 Guineas, and she put the race to bed with two furlongs to go before quickening six lengths clear of Triptych, a brilliant mare in her own right and particularly effective on the prevailing soft ground. The St Leger only became a target when Slip Anchor went wrong, but after good seconds in the King George and the Benson & Hedges (Juddmonte International) she won that too to confirm herself unusually versatile as well as exceptionally talented.
2. SUN PRINCESS (1983)
beat Acclimatise by 12 lengths
b f English Prince - Sunny Valley (Val De Loir)
Trainer: Dick Hern
Jockey: Willie Carson
Owner: Sir Michael Sobell
Career record: 3 wins from 10 starts
The first maiden to win an English Classic in 33 years, Sun Princess did not simply win the Oaks, she turned it into a procession, easing to the front coming down the hill into Tattenham Corner and forging away in the straight to score by a gaping 12 lengths, a record at the time. This was not an Oaks run in conditions conducive to freakishly wide margin wins, like that of Snowfall in 2021, and though her career strike-rate proved disappointing her second in the Arc, following wins in the Yorkshire Oaks and St Leger, confirmed it was no fluke.
3. ENABLE (2017)
beat Rhododendron by five lengths
b f Nathaniel - Concentric (Sadler’s Wells)
Trainer: John Gosden
Jockey: Frankie Dettori
Owner: Khalid Abdullah
Career record: 15 wins from 19 starts
Racing historians one day reviewing Enable’s achievements will no doubt focus on her three wins in the King George and two in the Arc, as well perhaps as her gutsy defeat of Magical in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. However, her five-length defeat of 1000 Guineas second and solid Group 1 filly Rhododendron in an Oaks run in a thunderstorm, with the rest strung out like washing behind her, was a cracking effort too. It was the first sign that we might be in the presence of one of the greats, and she did not disappoint.
4. OUIJA BOARD (2004)
beat All Too Beautiful by seven lengths
b f Cape Cross - Selection Board (Welsh Pageant)
Trainer: Ed Dunlop
Jockey: Kieren Fallon
Owner: Lord Derby
Career record: 10 wins from 22 starts
Before Ouija Board became such an acclaimed international star she was a spectacular seven-length winner of the Oaks, in which she cruised past her rivals going to two out and then surged right away from favourite All Too Beautiful. It was a top-class performance visually, and she proved every bit as she looked. By the time she was done she had added another six Group 1s, including the Irish Oaks, a Hong Kong Vase and two Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mares.
5. BLUE WIND (1981)
beat Madam Gay by seven lengths
ch f Lord Gayle - Azurine (Chamossaire)
Trainer: Dermot Weld
Jockey: Lester Piggott
Owner: Diana Firestone
Career record: 5 wins from 11 starts
Just three days after Shergar won the Derby by a record 10 lengths, Blue Wind beat a deep field with almost as much authority in the Oaks. A short-head second in the Irish 1000 Guineas, she relished the mile and a half at Epsom and in a fiercely-run race she could be named the winner a long way out. After taking it up two out she forged seven lengths clear, and when runner-up Madam Gay won the Prix de Diane by four lengths there was speculation that Blue Wind might give Shergar a race in the King George. However, she ran instead in the Irish Oaks and readily completed the double.
6. PAWNEESE (1976)
beat Roses For The Star by five lengths
b f Carvin - Plencia (Le Haar)
Trainer: Angel Penna
Jockey: Yves Saint-Martin
Owner: Daniel Wildenstein
Career record: 6 wins from 10 starts
There were some exceptional middle-distance fillies in the mid-1970s, and Pawneese was among the best of them. The opposition might have been stronger on quantity than quality when she turned the Oaks into a procession and won as she pleased, but there was no shortage of quality just nine days later when she readily ended the unbeaten run of the top-class Riverqueen in the Prix de Diane. Returning to England she made it six wins in a row in the King George, making all to beat four fellow Classic winners, and after such a strenuous campaign she can surely be excused two subsequent disappointments.
7. SALSABIL (1990)
beat Game Plan by five lengths
b f Sadler’s Wells - Flame Of Tara (Artaius)
Trainer: John Dunlop
Jockey: Willie Carson
Owner: Hamdan Al Maktoum
Career record: 7 wins from 9 starts
One might pick holes in the form of Salsabil’s Oaks win, with an outsider chasing her home and her main market rivals well below form, but she settled the issue in strides once switched to challenge between rivals, and a couple of tail flashes barely detracted at all from the impression she made. Already successful in the 1,000 Guineas, she went on to beat a strong field of colts in the Irish Derby, a race no filly had won since 1900. Forget her disappointing effort in the Arc. She was over the top.
8. MYSTERIOUS (1973)
beat Where You Lead by four lengths
ch f Crepello - Hill Shade (Hillary)
Trainer: Noel Murless
Jockey: Geoff Lewis
Owner: George Pope, Jr.
Career record: 5 wins from 8 starts
Mysterious looked pretty special when making short work of Jacinth, who had been the outstanding two-year-old of either sex, in the 1000 Guineas, and she confirmed herself a top-class filly when stretching her unbeaten run to four races in the Oaks, in which she took charge with nearly three furlongs to run and quickened away to beat Vincent O’Brien’s Musidora winner Where You Lead easily by four lengths. Her stable was under a bit of a cloud when she was beaten by Dahlia in the Irish Oaks, but she returned to her best with the easiest of wins in the Yorkshire Oaks.
9. MIDWAY LADY (1986)
beat Untold by a length
b f Alleged - Smooth Bore (His Majesty)
Trainer: Ben Hanbury
Jockey: Ray Cochrane
Owner: Harry Ranier
Career record: 5 wins from 6 starts
Injury restricted Midway Lady’s three-year-old campaign to just two races, but nobody can accuse connections of failing to make the most of her. The best staying juvenile filly of 1985, when her wins included the May Hill Stakes and the Prix Marcel Boussac, she mustered just enough speed to beat the outstanding Michael Stoute pair of Maysoon and Sonic Lady in the 1000 Guineas, and was then prepared for the Oaks, in which her stamina came to the fore. It proved hardish work again, but Midway Lady grittily beat a deep field headed by another top Stoute filly Untold. Maysoon was third this time and Colorspin, yet another Stoute filly, a well-beaten fourth.
10. SNOWFALL (2021)
beat Mystery Angel by 16 lengths
b f Deep Impact - Best In The World (Galileo)
Trainer: Aidan O’Brien
Jockey: Frankie Dettori
Owners: Derrick Smith & Mrs John Magnier & Michael Tabor
Career record: 5 wins from 14 starts
Shunned by Ryan Moore, Snowfall probably handled conditions better than most on what was a filthy afternoon. She also enjoyed the best track position, hard against the stands’ rail through the last two furlongs, but she could hardly have impressed more with the ease with which she made her ground and then quickened a record 16 lengths clear. Any suggestion it was some kind of fluke was blown away when she went on to win the Irish Oaks by more than eight lengths and the Yorkshire Oaks by four. A top-class filly by any measure.
… and what about the rest?
There is plenty of room for argument regarding the order of this list – but many may first notice the great fillies who are missing. This, however, is a list of Oaks-winning performances – and definitively not a list of the greatest fillies to have won the race.
Time Charter (1982), for example, would be among the best fillies ever to win the Oaks, having gone on to win the Champion Stakes (by seven lengths) and the King George, but her Epsom defeat of Slightly Dangerous was not a vintage Oaks performance.
Dunfermline (1977), who went on to beat an Arc winner in the St Leger, User Friendly (1992), another Leger winner, and more recently Taghrooda (2014), subsequently successful in the King George, are among other notable absentees for the same reason. Brilliant as they were, the form they showed when winning the Oaks simply wasn’t that special by Classic standards.
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Epsom Derby: Ten greatest winning performances of the last 50 years
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