David Ord looks at the four best Cazoo Oaks winners over the last 30 years based on their Timeform performance rating on the day.
So we’re going with the best four Cazoo Oaks winners of the last 30 years on Timeform performance ratings.
Not five, because four horses tied for that spot, Look Here, Alexandrova, Love and Ramruma all running to 123 to win at Epsom.
They were clearly good fillies - as was the late Snowfall who ran out a remarkable winner in 2021, hitting 121 in the process.
That was the same number as Light Shift needed in 2007. She was one of the most significant winners of the Classic in this time frame though, her victory marking the turning of the tide for Sir Henry Cecil who was to enjoy a glorious autumn to his remarkable training career.
It’s worth noting these are the performances registered on the day – not the career highs of these fillies. Snow Fairy for example only needing to go to 113 in 2010. She peaked with a 128 two years later when winning the Irish Champion Stakes on her final start, beating Nathaniel and St Nicholas Abbey.
So here we go – the four best winning performances over the last 25 years.
4 OUIJA BOARD – 124 IN 2004
There were stamina doubts surrounding Lord Derby’s filly as Ed Dunlop finalised her Epsom preparations. She’d won two of her previous four starts, including the Pretty Polly at Newmarket, but it wasn’t until Oaks Day that a star was born.
Kieren Fallon, the king of Epsom at the time, chased her back onto the bridle early in the straight and she won her Classic with a dazzling change of pace two furlongs out. It carried her a widening seven lengths clear of All Too Beautiful with Punctilious a further three-and-a-half lengths away in third.
She looked special – and so it proved, her CV going on to include the Irish Oaks, two Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turfs, a Hong Kong Vase, Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and Nassau Stakes.
Oaks day on 2004 really was a launchpad for something special.
2= Enable 125 in 2017
So it was in 2017.
Through the spring Enable sat behind stablemate Shutter Speed in the Clarehaven pecking order but a smooth win in the Cheshire Oaks lit the fuse.
At Epsom it was clear we were dealing with a filly right out of the top drawer. As the rain fell on the Downs she went to the front three out and pulled five lengths clear of the odds-on favourite Rhododendron. We hadn’t seen anything yet.
She went on to win her next ten races, including two Arcs before being denied a slice of turf history by Waldgeist in the 2019 renewal of that great race. She was back in Paris a year later but wasn’t the force of old – no shame in that. Few have flown higher than Enable at her peak.
2= Sariska 125 in 2009
A filly who was at her best on Oaks day. She arrived there off the back of a win in the Musidora at York and was sent off the 9/4 favourite.
She duly delivered but had to dig much deeper than looked likely when she went to the front two-and-a-half furlongs out. She answered every one of Jamie Spencer’s calls as Midday threw down a determined challenge.
It was desperate at the line – but Sariska had done enough. It was the polar opposite for her at the Curragh next time in the Irish Oaks, Lady Bamford’s charge running out a ridiculously easy winner under a Spencer special.
1 User Friendly 128 in 1992
A quite brilliant filly for Clive Brittain and George Duffield, she had the stamina to win an Oaks – and a rival in All At Sea to push her to a peak rating.
They knew the winner would stay a mile-and-a-half – and that was the doubt over the runner-up – so Duffield, riding his first British Classic winner, set sail for home shortly after turning in.
Pat Eddery followed her through on All At Sea and was motionless in her slipstream until the two furlong marker. She was still two lengths adrift as he got to work though and with every passing stride it was clear she wasn’t going to get any closer.
At the line the winning margin was three-and-a-half lengths with fully 20 back to Pearl Angel in third.
From there User Friendly won the Irish and Yorkshire Oaks and St Leger at Doncaster before finding Subotica a neck to good in the Arc. A remarkably tough and talented filly.
