Horseplay attempts to bridge 30-year Classic gap in Oaks
Reference Point last to carry colours to glory Berry booked for 50-1 Derby hope Salouen
On Saturday, it will be 30 years to the day since Steve Cauthen, wearing the yellow silks with black spots of Louis Freedman, made all to win the 1987 Derby on the Henry Ceciltrained Reference Point.
A day before that anniversary, those distinctive colours will be carried for the first time since in an Epsom Classic when Horseplay, owned and bred by the Freedman family’s Cliveden Stud and trained by Andrew Balding, lines up for the Investec Oaks.
With Aidan O’brien’s Guineas runner-up Rhododendron shortening up to odds-on for the race yesterday, Horseplay, at 10-1, fulfils some of the criteria for a potential Oaks winner at more generous odds – most notably having won the Pretty Polly Stakes, a trial landed by Ouija Board (2004), Talent (2013) and Taghrooda (2014) in recent years.
“She’s a lovely filly, not very big but very straightforward,” said Balding yesterday. “We always liked her and she was working well last year. She ran well at Ascot first time out in July on fastish ground and I was going to put her in the May Hill, but she had a late setback.
“We then ran her in a Nottingham maiden in October, which she won by 13 lengths and, after that, it was too late to go for anything grand but, as her dam got a mile and six, the Oaks via the Pretty Polly was always the plan.
“She did well to win at Newmarket because she was quite keen early on and has since had a nice spin round Epsom at Breakfast with the Stars. Oisin [Murphy] feels she is well equipped for the track.”
Balding, 44, won the Oaks in his first season as a trainer with Casual Look in 2003, his only runner in the fillies Classic to date.
“That was absolutely important,” he recalled. “It was my first season, there was a bit of pressure taking over a not insignificant number of horses from Dad [Ian], it was the first one on the board and we had a treble that day. It was very important given its timing, but we’ve been lucky enough to have some very nice winners since.”
Horseplay is not dissimilar to Casual Look, although Casual Look had a bit more racing at two. “She ran in the Guineas rather than Pretty Polly but at the same meeting, so the timings are similar,” explained Balding.
“We took Horseplay to Breakfast with the Stars and, hopefully, she is still learning. It’s difficult to say how much she’s come on from Newmarket. She doesn’t need a lot of work – you need to be careful not to overdo her – but I’m very happy with her well-being and with the ease with which she is doing everything.”
Another similarity between the two fillies is that Casual Look, a 10-1 shot, also faced a red-hot Ballydoyle favourite in Yesterday. “Their filly was a bit unlucky and we got lucky and beat her a neck,” explained Balding. “Rhododendron stands out. Classic form is, after all, Classic form and Aidan sets the bar high, which is the way it should be. But they have all got to stay and handle the track and, as we well know, anything can happen.”
Riding plans for a lot of Derby runners will be finalised in the next 24 hours but Fran Berry, who rides Isabel de Urbina, runner-up to Horseplay in the Pretty Polly, in the Oaks, will ride 50-1 chance Salouen for Sylvester Kirk in the Derby.