Amelia Earhart draws clear in the Cheshire Oaks

Trackside: Horses to follow from the Boodles May Festival at Chester

Horse Racing

Mon May 11, 2026 · 3d ago

The Trackside team look back on the Boodles May Festival at Chester and flag up four horses they're keen to follow.

Amelia Earheart (Aidan O’Brien)

6 May - Chester Weatherbys Cheshire Oaks

It’s an easy one to start with on this week’s all-Chester horses to follow by putting up Amelia Earheart, such an impressive winner of the Weatherbys Cheshire Oaks on Wednesday, as much like last year with Minnie Hauk in the same race, we saw a filly very much on the up that was not 100% fit on the day, and she’s only going to do better at Epsom.

She’s filled out in tremendous fashion from two to three, dwarfing her rivals physically in the paddock, and it isn’t hard - in retrospect - to see why she took such a long time to get off the mark last year, she would have been quite weak physically but she’s looking the finished product now. I haven’t personally seen anything better this season, and she’s going to be the one to beat in the Oaks.

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Eben El Khawaneej (Owen Burrows)

8 May - Chester - Boodles Darley EBF Maiden Stakes

If you could give me one horse to take forward from the whole week, maybe not for the short term but a bit further down the line, it would be Eben El Khawaneej, fourth in the maiden on Friday.

Basically what we’ve got here is a big, raw, clueless baby of a horse that just wouldn’t stop shouting in the pre-parade ring (and fair play to winner Galiyan, who had him screaming down his earholes the whole time and never flinched - he’d come on a lot from his first run, as he showed here).

As green as grass, and all at sea on Chester’s tight turns, he finished off well enough and hit the line with some gusto, for all the winner was long home by then. Keep an eye on him, he’ll keep progressing and there’s a decent handicap to be won with him in the late summer/early autumn.

Factual (Andrew Balding)

7 May - Chester - Xenon Workplace Handicap

Over the week, the number of times I found myself writing the words “fit, looks very well in coat” against Andrew Balding runners it would have been easier to have had it on copy and paste, but one I thought would just come forward a bit on looks was Factual, who nevertheless ran a solid race to finish fourth here.

This was his first run for seven months and he did look like he needed the rust knocking off him, both beforehand and the way he went through the race, so this is pretty encouraging all told. Strikes me as the type that would enjoy Ascot - let’s see where they decide to go with him next.

Outback Legend (Dr Richard Newland and Jamie Insole)

6 May - Chester - TMT Group Maiden Stakes

Initially I thought this well-built, yet quite athletic, sort, was in need of the run on a first look but the more he paraded around the fitter I thought he was, with plenty of rib on show and decent definition at the back. A really nice, rounded type, he made appeal and did not look out of place against horses that cost ten times what he did.

Chester didn’t suit him, as it doesn’t so many, yet he did get a bit closer to winner Tornado Tower than he did first time out at Nottingham a month before, and so I’d be positive about this performance overall. One more run for a mark, and 12/14f handicaps are then going to be available to him. I like him a lot, and will be disappointed if he can’t find a race or two this summer.

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