Six fillies and a mare line up on Saturday to contest the Yolkshire\u00a0Oaks, <\/EM><\/STRONG>a Grade I grass mile and a quarter race\u00a0at Epsom, with a total purse of $500,000. The course is projected to be firm.\u00a0 The ladies involved, as they line up by post:<\/P> PP 1 – Ramble On(AUS) <\/EM><\/STRONG>(Testa Rossa x Seattle Slew)<\/EM> is coming off of a <\/EM>win in an ungraded stakes going away, at 11 furlongs. We know the distance won’t be a problem for this 4 year old filly with 34 races under her belt, but the class is upped significantly here, and she’ll probably need more than the low to mid 90s speed numbers she’s been producing recently. She’ll be coming fast near the end here.<\/P> PP 2 – Buda At the Ballet <\/EM><\/STRONG>(Danzig x Nijinksky II) <\/EM>has had similar results and speed to the filly in the #1 pp right next to her, but this Buda gal likes to be much nearer the lead. Another one where the distance won’t be a problem, even when she presses the pace, if she doesn’t burn out early (and she rarely does), she’ll be a factor, but will need a bigger move at the end to cross ahead of these.<\/P> PP 3 – Coppelia <\/EM><\/STRONG>(Nureyev x Alydar) <\/EM>is the veteran of this group, both in age (6)\u00a0and races (45), but she’s still very productive, and dangerous here. It’s possible that class may wind up being an issue here, as\u00a0her last three tries\u00a0in Graded company haven’t worked out (a total of 28 1\/4 lengths beaten, with a 10th, 5th, and 3rd). Another one who likes to stalk near the lead, may vie with Buda for the early speed.<\/P> PP 4 – SJ’s Silver Ghost <\/EM><\/STRONG>(Silver Ghost x Danzig)<\/EM> is the favorite here at 2\/1, and a deserving one. Bringer of triple digit speed numbers in 5 of her last 6, including 2 Grade Is, the number 3 ranked turf classic filly is definitely the one to beat. And she has the meet’s leading rider on her back as well. She’s not Supergirl however,\u00a0as she threw a real clunker three back in a Grade I, but if she runs her usual race, this one can draw away from the rest here, if the speed she chases doesn’t draw her in to a suicide pace.<\/P> PP 5 – She’s My Friend<\/EM><\/STRONG> (Septieme Ciel x Alysheba) <\/EM>is still another front-runner\/stalker type who’s done her best work in ungraded stakes. The step up here again is a big one, and the pressing nature of most of the horses here won’t help her, but she’s certainly a name to include in the exotics, depending how long she can hang out on or near the lead.<\/P> PP 6 – West Pegasus<\/EM> <\/STRONG>(Fusaichi Pegasus x Gone West). The good news for this royally-bred 4 year old is that she has the closing style that could be very effective in a race like this, with the versatility to stay close enough to stalk if she has to. The bad news is this is only her 3rd stakes race ever, and the first since the 2nd race of her 3 yr old year. Not to mention her first Graded run ever as well. She’s got the speed numbers to at least compete with these, but it’ll take a lot of poise to go from allowances to a Grade I with aplomb. Stay tuned.<\/P> PP 7 – Grand Caffreys(IRE) <\/EM><\/STRONG>(Desert King x Grand Lodge)<\/EM> is another “good news\/bad news” proposition. The good news is she’s a Graded race workhorse, having almost as many Graded races as several of the horses here have races, as well as coming in\u00a0as the #4 ranked turf classic older filly. That said, there are a lot of questions here too: She likes longer races than the mile and a quarter, her speeds are all over the board, and her last two at this distance (also Grade Is) were an 11th and a 6th place running. If she can get started earlier this time than she usually does, she could play a big part in the payouts.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SJ’s Silver Ghost Morning Line Fave<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/392"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}