Irish Oaks 2023 Tips: O'Brien hotpot to fall to stablemate at Curragh
Irish Oaks preview for the 2023 renewal which takes place at the Curragh on Saturday afternoon and it will see Aidan O'Brien unleash a strong team of fillies for the three-year-old Classic, as he looks to win the event for a record-breaking seventh time. Our man Steve Chambers previews the contest here and picks out his best bet in the Group 1 showpiece...
Aidan O'Brien will saddle a stunning quartet of runners in the 2023 Irish Oaks and spearheading the Ballydoyle charge will be the red-hot favourite Savethelastdance, who is the choice of Ryan Moore, and has already shown to be a top class filly this season. A stunning 22-length winner of the Cheshire Oaks back in May, the Galileo filly then went and finished an excellent second behind Soul Sister in the Oaks at Epsom and a repeat of that effort should see her go very close here.
Proven at the very highest level, Savethelastdance didn't take her chance at Royal Ascot, so lines up fresh here, but while there's no doubting she's a real top notch performer - as she showed when scooting clear at Chester - she's awfully short at the current odds of around 5/6, so there could be more attractive value elsewhere and it could be the supposed O'Brien second string that could land a mini-shock here.
WARM HEART made it a glorious three wins on the spin at Royal Ascot as the heavily backed daughter of Galileo scooted to success in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes. Given a sublime ride that day, Warm Heart showed a fine turn of foot to pull over two lengths clear of her rivals in that event and she well and truly deserves her place at Group 1 level in this. She beat Lumiere Rock that day with aplomb and that pair will do battle again here, but it's hard to see Joseph O'Brien's filly reversing the form here, so Lumiere Rock may struggle, but Warm Heart shaped like she could be a real top class filly for the O'Brien team and at the current odds of 4/1 she looks far more attractive value than her stablemate Savethelastance, who she can topple here.
Just edged out by Warm Heart in a Listed contest at Newbury on only her second start, Ralph Beckett's Bluestocking was fancied to turn the tables in the Ribblesdale, but the British-trained raider could only finish third in the Royal Ascot event, so she will be looking to improve on that effort here and is third favourite with the bookmakers, at the time of writing. She's still relatively lightly-raced, so is one that could come on for those Royal Ascot exertions, but she was certainly put in her place at that day in the Ribblesdale by Warm Heart, so it's hard to see her getting her head in front here.
Dermot Weld last trained the winner of the Irish Oaks way back in 1996 and the master of Rosewell House will unleash Azazat, who was last seen finishing second in the Group 3 Munster Oaks at Cork. Available at 16/1 for this contest, the daughter of Camelot looks to be a filly that could improve as she has only been seen on the track four times, but it's a big ask now sent into the big time.
Of the others, Be Happy (22/1) and Library (80/1) are the final two shots fired by the O'Brien gun and appear to face an uphill battle to down the two fancied rivals, while Jim Bolger's Comhra (40/1) completes the octet and she was last seen finishing last in the Pretty Polly Stakes and will have to improve significantly back in the highest level in a race that can see the O'Brien pair battle it out for glory with Warm Heart coming out on top.
