Jarvis wants another classic moment

13 April 2012

Prior to last month's 1,000 Guineas, Michael Jarvis was yet to saddle a British classic winner despite managing a sparkling list of equine alumni during his 33-year training career.

Ameerat settled that score. Now stablemate Tarfshi, also owned by Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, can follow up in tomorrow's Epsom classic.

She has raced twice this term without winning. Put a line through her Kempton return - backward, she ran too freely and failed to get home in tacky ground. Next time she was a short-head second to Mot Juste, a rival tomorrow, in Newmarket's Pretty Polly Stakes. In another stride, she would have recorded a notable Guineas-day double for Jarvis.

Frankie Dettori set a slow pace on the winner and got first run on the field. Third-placed Time Away - who went on to win the Musidora in record time, flirted with Oaks favouritism but tackles Sunday's Prix de Diane at Chantilly instead. Tarfshi caught the eye most. Held up in rear off such a crawl of a race and checked when mounting her challenge, to conjure a near-winning run was remarkable.

It was always the plan to head straight to Epsom. The notable market move for her last month is encouraging and her Kremlin House trainer has hit top form in the past fortnight with five winners from just 19 runners.

This is a rare Oaks contender from the 62-year-old, who doesn't like running nohopers. Noushkey chased home Ramruma two years ago, the winner completing a fillies' classic double for trainer Henry Cecil following stablemate Wince's victory in the 1,000 Guineas. Jarvis can emulate his local rival when Tarfshi goes one better.

Mot Juste is unbeaten and entitled to improve after just two career runs. The booking of Richard Hughes is a plus for a likely repeat of front-running tactics, but her defeat of Tarfshi appears due more to luck and good judge-ment than basic superiority.

Time Away's Musidora win suggests Tarfshi has the beating of Relish The Thought, Flight Of Fancy, Foodbroker Fancy and Sunstone. The first two are entitled to come on hugely for the run, having previously raced only once and twice respectively at two. The other pair - despite the David Elsworth-trained filly's subsequent Lupe win, prompting this £20,000 Oaks supplementary entry - look slightly outclassed.

Flight Of Fancy, owned and bred by the Queen, vies for Oaks favouritism with Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine, Imagine. Neither offers much value in a wide-open race. The Aidan O'Brien-trained filly has both the class and likely stamina to win. She has solid juvenile form and her trainer took this event three years ago with Shahtoush. But Imagine relishes cut in the ground and it will be good to firm at Epsom.

The Queen's racing manager, Lord Carnarvon, accused triple champion jockey Kieren Fallon of riding an "awful" race on Flight Of Fancy at York. But the filly travelled a mere length behind winner, Time Away, and was unable to match her change of gear three out, instead staying on resolutely.

Like her dam, Phantom Gold, temperament runs high in this filly and she was wound up before racing. That won't help amid the pomp and circumstance of Oaks day. More pertinently, there's no reason why she should reverse form with Relish The Thought.

The main threat to the selection could be Zanzibar. Michael Bell's filly was supplemented after winning the Oaks d'Italia last month where she showed improved form in conditions similar to tomorrow - a fast-ground 12 furlongs. A Group One winner, whatever the venue, deserves respect and, although she meets a better standard of rival, she is peaking at the right time.

Her decent juvenile form includes a rare race at Epsom, proving she handles the downhill straight. Trainer Michael Bell has a line to the main strand of form with stablemate and Musidora third, Heavenly Whisper.

There are more forlorn each-way hopes than Santa Isobel. Her Newbury win is easily knocked, but she was for the first time tackling the middle distances both her pedigree and style of racing suggested she needed. Over-shadowed by her Royal stable-mate, Gay Heroine is open to improvement and can go well.

Godolphin's Najah is hardest to fathom. Speirbhean badly deflated her form in the Irish 1,000 Guineas, but Muwakleh's luckless Guineas second to Ameerat suggests a high standard among the stable's fillies.

Silver Grey Lady lacks pace to bag a good position early but is a progressive thorough stayer. Full-brother Silver Patriarch had the same problem in the 1997 Derby, but flew down Epsom's hill to be beaten a short-head by Benny The Dip. His sister may contest the minor placings.

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Frankie Dettori

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Newmarket Racecourses

Jarvis wants another classic moment

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