Win in the Weatherbys E-Passport Cheshire Oaks at Chester narrowly boosted Forest Fairy's Betfred Oaks claims.
Big-race pilot Rossa Ryan, who was coming to the Roodee after an outstanding first victory at Wolverhampton, pulled his horse wide as the six runners headed for home. Rossa Ryan barely managed to get up to beat Port Fairy by a head on the 11-4 chance for Ralph Beckett.
Before making it to the winner's enclosure atop the talented three-year-old, Ryan had made 39 attempts to win at the course.
He said: “We went an okay gallop, they steadied up down the back and we got racing three (furlongs) out. She’s still showed a lot of signs of inexperience when I had to come out from behind and be a bit aggressive on her, but you can’t be but impressed by the way she got out and had a look around and still when the job needed to be done, she stuck her head down and galloped right out to the line. I’ll leave it up to Ralph and the team to decide where she goes next, but I would imagine that when she gets on softer going conditions, she’ll be a lot better again – and I’d imagine with racing, she’ll get better. She got away with the ground today, it’s probably on the slow side of good and I don’t think she’d want it any quicker than that. She did everything I asked of her and more and answered more questions than I thought she would. We shall see what the future holds, but she’s an exciting filly for sure and she’s one that should get better with time and with age.”
Forest Fairy now looks to have booked her ticket to Epsom, with the daughter of Waldgeist having been trimmed by Betfair to 10-1 from 20-1 for Classic triumph in the Oaks at Epsom with sponsors Betfred.