Magical Out of Oaks, Rain Hits Epsom

[Wandering Eyes]

Friday’s G1 Investec Oaks has changed shape with the news that Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) will sidestep the race due to Tuesday’s setback and the ground is now riding officially “soft” after a torrent struck Epsom on Tuesday night. That shift in conditions also led to the withdrawal of Sunderland Holdings’ Listed Haras de Bouquetot Fillies’ Trial S. winner Sea of Class (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}), leaving nine to go post for the fillies’ Classic. Magical was found to have filling on the inside of a joint, which means that Ryan Moore will now partner the Listed Cheshire Oaks winner Magic Wand (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), one of five trained at Ballydoyle.

Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper said on Wednesday morning, “I don’t think anywhere was predicted 20mm in our neck of the woods yesterday. Probably our latest forecast had been suggesting five or six. It’s the volumes you might get that is the uncertainty. If it can be from five to 25 millimetres you can’t judge it. Rain started 10:30 in the morning yesterday when we had about four or five millimetres. After a lull, it did pep up and kicked in about 5 p.m. By the end of the night we had 21 millimetres in the day as a whole. The bulk of that was in the late afternoon.”

Cooper is expecting the Derby festival to be staged on ground with at least some ease and added, “It’s been dry since midnight. It’s been overcast this morning and should stay dry. It might brighten up later on. There’s definitely a risk of showers tomorrow and some could be heavy. After that it looks dry for Friday and Saturday. Temperatures will be in the low to mid-20s so hopefully a couple of quite pleasant days. It’s definitely soft ground. Any appreciable rain tomorrow and we’d be staying soft. If we get the lower end of it, we will very slowly be drying out back towards good-to-soft. While there is rain in the forecast, so the likelihood is we will go into Friday on soft ground. The best you’d be looking at would be good-to-soft at the end of the week.”

It is the same situation across the sea at Chantilly, where Sunday’s G1 QIPCO Prix du Jockey Club will have an extra player after Godolphin’s Key Victory (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) was supplemented on Wednesday. The going was measured at 3.7, or soft, on Wednesday morning after 28 millimetres of rain in 48 hours.

View the full article