Estrange camp hoping for rain ahead of Yorkshire Oaks

Rain will have to fall at York if Estrange is to challenge Aidan O’Brien’s dominance in Thursday’s Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks, with Minnie Hauk and Whirl among four contenders for the Ballydoyle handler.

Estrange is one of just two British-trained contenders alongside Ed Walker’s Qilin Queen, with the other quartet all trained by O’Brien.

Minnie Hauk appears O’Brien’s chief hope after completing the English-Irish Oaks double at Epsom and the Curragh. Whirl, a neck behind her stablemate at Epsom and a dual Group One winner since, is also in the potential line-up alongside Garden Of Eden and Bedtime Story.

Estrange, trained by David O’Meara for owner-breeders Cheveley Park Stud, progressed through the levels to take the Listed Gillies Fillies’ Stakes at Doncaster last year before returning to action this term to win both the Lester Piggott Stakes and the Lancashire Oaks at Haydock.

Her only defeat to date came on good to firm ground at Yarmouth last season and connections are hoping at least some rain falls over York as they look to chart a path to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at ParisLongchamp in October.

“It depends which forecast you look at, and I am probably guilty of looking at the one I want to look at rather than the one I don’t!” said Cheveley Park’s managing director Chris Richardson on the chance of rain at York.

“But she’s very well, a bit of ease in the ground would be helpful. She’s working well but this just happens to be a year of fast ground.

“We’re working back from the autumn so we will see how we go and how we plan from here on out.

“If she can’t run then there are some entries abroad we can look at, she’s in the Fillies & Mares (on Champions Day at Ascot) and obviously the Arc later in the year.”

Day two of the Ebor Festival kicks off with the Sky Bet Lowther Stakes, a Group Two event over six furlongs, for which 12 juvenile fillies have stood their ground.

Walker’s Royal Fixation, second by a neck to Venetian Sun in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes, heads the market, while Ryan Moore is booked to ride Richard Hughes’ 12-length Haydock winner America Queen.

George Scott’s Princess Margaret runner-up Staya is in the mix, as are Tim Easterby’s ultra-consistent Argentine Tango and Brian Ellison’s Wor Faayth.