Friday at the Betfred Oaks at Epsom, Aidan O'Brien's Ylang Ylang is the front-runner and contender for Classic victory.
In her maiden race as a three-year-old, the Frankel filly was defeated just a length under Ryan Moore, placing her fifth in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket.
Although she had a drop in form in the middle of her juvenile season when she finished last of nine in the Moyglare Stud Stakes, she still demonstrated a great deal of potential when she won her first two races and finished at the top level with victory in the Fillies' Mile.
That was due to an over-keenness, according to O'Brien, who was happy to see her win both in the Fillies' Mile and the Guineas.
“We weren’t sure whether Ylang Ylang would get the trip as she was keen and that is why her disappointing runs came in the middle,” he said. “When we got her back and taught her how to relax, she was like a middle-distance filly and that is what she was like in the Guineas as well. We were very happy with her in the Guineas. We thought going to the Guineas that she was an Oaks filly given the way she had been working and that is how she ran. Ryan was very happy with her. He let her find her feet and he felt she came home very well.”
Of her beaten runs in the Moyglare and Rockfel, where she was ninth and third respectively, O’Brien added: “She won her first two races and then on her next two runs was a little bit keen and disappointed. Her run in the Moyglare was a shocker. She was able to reverse it when she got into the right mindset and I imagine some of the fillies that were behind her in the Guineas were ahead of her in the Moyglare, so it’s amazing the way things can swing around.”