French Oaks (18th June)

Rhododendron seemed to have been outstayed by Enable over 12f in atrocious condition at Epsom; she was also inconvenienced by the journey from Ireland on race day; she won the Gp 1 Fillies Mile at Newamarket in good style last season and installed the 5/4 fav for the 1000G.

This race is over 10f, and I think she'll have a chance 2nd to none of opening her Gp 1 account this season. At 2/1 I think Rhododendron represent value if her assertion at Epsom two weeks ago had not taken too much out of her. If successful here the Nassau Stakes could be on the agenda presently not entered.

Talking (or posting) to yourself is the first of madness.

^sign of madness

if shutter goes to 2/1 thats my bet as think long term she will prove better than enable

Will the Coolmore boys get stuck into Rhododendron on race day? I think she ought to be the rightful fav given her more superior Gp1 form and proven stamina.

they may i just thonk JG knew enable good enough beat her in oaks and have been told he thinks shutter the better but time will tell

I think Shutter Speed (SS) is the better of the two Gosden's inmates over 10f; Rhododendron is rated several lbs higher than (SS), and now the fav with most bookies for this with Shutter Speed out to 15/8. Soon you'll have your 2/1 for SS.

Hard to believe anyone could think that Enable ran to her Oaks form when beaten by Shutter Speed at Newbury. The Newbury race was quite slowly run so probably wasn't a true reflection anyway but I had her improving massively on that at Chester and then improving again at Epsom. Shutter Speed remains unbeaten but so far she has only been involved in slowly run races. It remains to be seen if she's as effective in a well run race at this level. Rhododendron has the form in the book and sets a decent standard but she's had a couple of hard races in a short space of time and she hasn't improved since last year, this makes her vulnerable and it would be no surprise to see her run a bit below par here so makes no appeal at the price.

In this race you can never be sure what the pace is going to be like, we've had a few truly run races over the years but many falsely run ones. If we do get a slowly run race then I don't think it would be perfect for Rhododendron even though she has good form over shorter, whereas it would obviously suit Shutter Speed. Also in my view Dettori is generally better at adapting to slowly run races than Moore is. As so often is the case the French fillies are difficult to get a handle on as so many of their trials were slowly run. If we do get a crawl and sprint race on Sunday a lot of their runners excel in such circumstances and that's another reason I wouldn't want to take short prices about the front two in the betting. Just a watching race for me.

Shutter Speed for me as The Oaks was a tough race for Rhododendron only 2 weeks ago.