The Yorkshire Oaks takes place on the second day of the Ebor Festival at York.
The fillies and mares Group 1 is one of the biggest races of the season for the female sex and in recent years has given us the winners of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe courtesy of both Enable (2017) and Alpinista (2022).
Check out Steve Mullington’s tips on every race on Day 2 at the York Ebor Festival
Will the race serve up yet another Arc pointer this year?
The 2025 Yorkshire Oaks contenders:
Estrange (David O’Meara)
Connections of Estrange are hopeful that some rain will increase her chances in the Yorkshire showpiece.
Owned by Cheveley Park Stud and trained by David O’Meara, the grey has won four of her five starts, including the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks at Haydock Park.
“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.”
Garden Of Eden (Aidan O’Brien)
Garden Of Eden showed improved form when stepped up to 1½ miles and was a dominant winner of the Ribblesdale at Royal Ascot, beating Understudy by over three lengths.
O’Brien decided to run her next in the Group 1 Henkel-Preis der Diana in Dusseldorf, Germany, but she could only manage a lowly ninth place and the even money favourite was never at the races that day.
This daughter of Saxon Warrior will need the two principles to falter if she is to have any chance of taking home the silverware here.
Minnie Hauk (Aidan O’Brien)
Minnie Hauk is as short as 1-4 in our horse racing betting to give O’Brien a fifth win in six years in the Yorkshire Oaks.
The daughter of Frankel is hunting down a Group 1 hat-trick having landed the Epsom Oaks and the Irish Oaks at the Curragh last month.
The Yorkshire Oaks comes under the umbrella of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, offering the winner an automatic paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar.
The race has also been proven to be a key prep for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, a race Minnie Hauk hasn’t been entered into as yet, but the chances of supplementing her look extremely high should she win this.
Qilin Queen (Ed Walker)
Ed Walker’s Qilin Queen finished in eighth place behind Minnie Hauk at Epsom, and will obviously need to run the race of her life to turn around that deficit on Thursday.
Unsuitably soft ground was blamed for that no-show at Epsom, and the daughter of Pinatubo bounced back in style in her following race, taking down the unbeaten Sunly in the Group 2 Prix de Malleret at ParisLongchamp.
I can see Qilin Queen finishing much closer to the favourite than she did at Epsom, but I doubt it’ll be enough to actually pass her.
Yorkshire Oaks selection: Estrange (4/1) in our online betting.
*Odds correct at the time of writing – prices subject to change*
