For both Charlie Appleby and William Buick, membership of one of Flat racing\u2019s most exclusive clubs will be an added incentive when Desert Flower, the 1,000 Guineas winner and favourite, canters to post before the Oaks at Epsom on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Since the end of the second world war, only eight jockeys and 11 trainers have managed to get their names on the roll of honour for all five English Classics, and both lists are a roll call of racing legends. Vincent O\u2019Brien, Sir Henry Cecil and Aidan O\u2019Brien are among the trainers to have completed the full set, while an even shorter list of riders includes Lester Piggott, Steve Cauthen and Pat Eddery, and, since the turn of the century, only Frankie Dettori and Ryan Moore.<\/p>\n
And while it is 15 years since Buick\u2019s first Classic victory, aboard Arctic Cosmos in the 2010 St Leger, Appleby could be about to complete the set in only eight. Masar, in the 2017 Derby,<\/a> was the trainer\u2019s first Classic winner, Hurricane Lane took the St Leger in 2021<\/a> and the Guineas victories of Notable Speech, in 2024, and Desert Flower, at Newmarket last month, <\/a>have now left him with only an Oaks winner to find.<\/p>\n The final step of a rare sporting journey is often the most difficult to complete, however, and even Piggott, the greatest Classic jockey of them all, was forced to wait until 1970 to win the 1,000 Guineas, 16 years after his first Derby victory in 1954.<\/p>\n Desert Flower\u2019s eight opponents on Friday will include three runners trained by the Aidan O\u2019Brien stable that won recognised Oaks trials last time out, and Saeed bin Suroor\u2019s lightly raced Elwateen, a supplementary entry after a fine run into fourth behind Desert Flower in the 1,000 Guineas. Suroor\u2019s string has dwindled in recent seasons as Appleby has taken over as Godolphin\u2019s main trainer in Newmarket, but he is already a member of the \u201cAll Five Classics\u201d club. It would be quite the twist if Elwateen was the filly to leave Appleby on the doorstep.<\/p>\n Quick GuideGreg Wood’s Friday racing tipsShow<\/p>\n Thirsk: 1.15<\/b> In A Hurry 1.50<\/b> Latynina 2.25<\/b> Banana\u00a03.00 <\/b>Canon\u2019s House 3.40 <\/b>Jeany May 4.20<\/b> Lone Piper\u00a04.55 <\/b>Commander Atkinson 5.30<\/b> Arabian Cobra\u00a0<\/p>\n Epsom: 1.30<\/b> Saqqara Sands 2.05<\/b> Havana Hurricane\u00a0\u00a02.40<\/b> Calandagan 3.15<\/b> Have Secret\u00a04.00<\/b> Minnie Hauk (nb) 4.35<\/b> Mirsky 5.10<\/b> Alzahir\u00a0<\/p>\n Bangor: 1.40<\/b> Herja 2.15 <\/b>Baskerville 2.50<\/b> Finest View 3.30<\/b> Guillaume 4.10<\/b> Al Sayah 4.40<\/b>\u00a0Newmill Getaway\u00a0Bath 5.15<\/b> Russian Rumour 5.45 <\/b>Top Biller 6.20<\/b> Secret Santa 6.55<\/b> Far Above Dream 7.30<\/b> Sioux Warrior 8.05 <\/b>Aikhal\u00a08.40 <\/b>King Of Speed\u00a0<\/p>\n Goodwood: 5.25<\/b> Platinum Prince 5.59 <\/b>Alerta Maxima 6.34<\/b> Kensington Agent 7.09<\/b> Whizz By\u00a07.44 <\/b>Serenity Dream 8.19<\/b> Big Bear Hug\u00a0<\/p>\n Doncaster: 5.34<\/b> L\u2019Eagle Aid 6.05 <\/b>Regal Ulixes 6.40 <\/b>Hard Endeavor 7.15<\/b> King Of Charm 7.50<\/b> Up The Pace (nap) 8.25 <\/b>Mythical Phoenix 9.00<\/b> Justenzia<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n The question mark around Desert Flower\u2019s chance is whether her stamina will extend to 12 furlongs and even her jockey will not know for certain until the business end of Friday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think she\u2019s very versatile,\u201d Buick said on Thursday. \u201cEach time I\u2019ve ridden her she has adapted to the race scenario. We could have kept her at a mile, it was put across the table as a plan, but we all felt she would get further. Whether that is a mile-and-a-quarter or a mile-and-a-half, we will see on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n What does seem certain is that Desert Flower\u2019s rivals will make it a real test, and while she was a convincing winner of the Guineas her sire and dam were effective at short of 10 furlongs.<\/p>\n With that in mind, she is very hard to back at around 7-4 and Ryan Moore\u2019s decision to ride Minnie Hauk <\/strong>(4.00), the Cheshire Oaks winner, could be significant. On ratings she is third-best in O\u2019Brien\u2019s trio of runners but she was a very comfortable winner on the Roodee with the promise of improvement over an extra furlong, and she is worth an interest at around 9-2 to give O\u2019Brien an 11th Oaks success.<\/p>\n Epsom 1.30 Saqqara Sands\u2019s<\/strong> stable remains in fine form and she has the most scope for progress in this field.<\/p>\n Epsom 2.05<\/strong> Eve Johnson Houghton won this race two years ago with Bobsleigh and Havana Hurricane <\/strong>arrives with a similar profile.<\/p>\n Epsom 2.40<\/strong> Calandagan\u2019s <\/strong>first Group One win is long overdue and Francis-Henri Graffard\u2019s gelding has several pounds in hand here.<\/p>\n Epsom 3.15<\/strong> Have Secret <\/strong>has hit a rich vein of form this season and his mark is unchanged after another solid run last time.<\/p>\n Epsom 4.35<\/strong> David O\u2019Meara\u2019s Mirsky <\/strong>can follow up from his win at Thirsk last time off a 2lb higher mark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For both Charlie Appleby and William Buick, membership of one of Flat racing\u2019s most exclusive clubs will be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-161062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114632518942337095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}