After the heavy rain came to Epsom this week, 'TDN Rising Star' Sobetsu (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) will bid for Classic glory in the G1 Investec Oaks instead of waiting for the French equivalent to make up a strong field of 10 fillies going to post on Friday. Successful on testing ground in the Prix Saint-Alary at Deauville May 14, Godolphin's bay will be the sole representative of the operation in the mile-and-a-half feature and trainer Charlie Appleby said, “She's been declared and all the indications are that on Friday it could be perfectly good ground. We know she appreciates a bit of cut and she doesn't want it too quick, but we wouldn't want it too testing on her first start over a mile-and-a-half either. Good ground over a mile-and-a-half should be fine for her and who's to say in two weeks' time for the French Oaks it won't be quick ground? We'd look a bit silly if that was the case and we'd missed the Oaks at Epsom when the ground was suitable.”
He added that Sobetsu could also yet run at Chantilly in the G1 Prix de Diane. “I wouldn't rule out doing the two. With the races over two weeks apart that wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility.”
Sobetsu has drawn 10 of 10, with Ballydoyle's Rhododendron (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in five as she looks likely to start odds-on and continue the winning run of her stable in the English and Irish Classics in 2017. Barnmate Alluringly (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) is in seven, with likely pacemaker Pocketfullofdreams (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) also representing Rosegreen in stall one. Seamie Heffernan and Donnacha O'Brien will ride the latter duo respectively, with fellow Irish-based jockey Pat Smullen booked for Khalid Abdullah's Natavia (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}). She impressed last Saturday in Newbury's Listed Haras de Bouquetot Fillies' Trial S. over 10 furlongs, but has been passed over by Frankie Dettori in favour of the same connections' Listed Cheshire Oaks winner Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}).
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