AIDAN O’BRIEN’S BID for his eighth Investec Oaks success at Epsom this afternoon came up short when his leading fancy among a four-pronged challenge, Pink Dogwood, was beaten into second place by Anapurna and Frankie Dettori with another O’Brien challenger Fleeting a fast-finishing third.
The Ballydoyle trainer won his first three Oaks with sole representatives Shahtoush (1998), Imagine (2001) and Alexandrova (2006) while in recent years has run several fillies in the race.
Last year’s heroine Forever Together led home a first, third, fourth, fifth and eighth in the race for O’Brien while today, along with the second and third home, his Delphinia finished fifth and Peach Tree filled tenth place.
Dermot Weld’s sole challenger Tarnawa finished eleventh of the 14 runners behind the John Gosden-trained 8-1 winner Anapurna whose stablemate and favourite Mehdaayih came home in seventh place after meeting trouble in running.
O’Brien found little or no joy in today’s Epsom Coronation Cup either. His 10-3 shot Kew Gardens was beaten by 11-1 priced Defoe.
Roger Varian’s five-year-old raced to victory ahead of Kew Gardens and was equally untroubled by race favourite Lah Ti Dar (11-4) who finished sixth.
- Brian Fleming, for more visit the Racing Post
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