Dancing Rain wins Investec Oaks 2011, Wonder of Wonders second
The purse for the Investec Oaks may have been reduced but the colour and flair of the hats was on the rise as long shot, Dancing Rain, won the 232rd running of the Investec Oaks at Epsom.
The Grade 1 race has a purse of $531,222 and is run over a distance of 12 furlongs. The bay chestnut filly had winning odds of 20-1 and as soon as the race began she steered forward to the front managing to give her rivals a tough time.
Dancing Rain was ridden by Johnny Murtagh in the June 3, 2011 event.
Murtagh guided the filly under his masterful hands into a strong lead and continued to do so even when she entered the final two furlongs despite facing a challenge from the Aidan O’ Brien trained 3-1 favourite, Wonder of Wonders.
Dancing Rain completed the race in a final time of 2 minutes and 41 seconds. Wonder of Wonders tracked in second throughout the race, tried to overcome the leader, Dancing Rain, but in vain. Wonder of Wonders was ridden by Kieran Fallon.
Murtagh, the award winning Irish flat racing jockey, said “I watched the videos of her races and she seems to travel very well and is uncomplicated. We set a nice pace but she was ducking and diving, so I knew there was loads left in the tank. I picked her
up in the last half-mile and it worked really well for her”.
Dancing Rain’s win was celebrated by her trainer, William Haggas, who expressed his joy by saying “I’m thrilled to bits. [My wife] Maureen broke her leg off this filly coming out of the stalls, but the filly has rewarded her anyway”.
Haggas explained that the filly has shown improvement from her previous starts and this might be because she has been made to use her imposing stride. She started going for the imposing stride after being edged out by Izzi Top in the Swettenham Stud Trial
at Newbury.
Dancing Rain was bred by Swettenham Stud in Ireland. She is owned by M.J. and L.A. Taylor. The three year old is the daughter of Danehill Dancer and mare Rain Flower.
Dancing Rain had not been able to set the lead in any race in any of her previous three starts. But in the Investec Oaks she was able to set moderate fractions. She has Maureen as her regular rider; Maureen broke her leg aboard the filly.
The field had 13 contestants and amongst them Blaise Chorus and Wonder of Wonders were considered the favourites for the race. Wonder of Wonders trained by Aidan O’ Brien was fancied as the 3-1 favourite for the Investec Oaks.
The race turned out to be disappointing for jockey, Frankie Dettori, as Blue Bunting after being favourite with winning odds of 9-4 ended up in fourth place.
For the Investec winner it was not only the first victory at the Oaks for Murtagh but this was also the first stakes win for Dancing Rain.
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