Crown Oaks Tips & Betting Preview

The Crown Oaks is the prized race for the staying fillies during the Melbourne Cup carnival and, with a prize purse of AUS$1 million, it’s well worth winning. Some of Australia’s best fillies have won the Oaks, including Jameka, Samantha Miss and Miss Finland and there’s one runner that has attracted most of the attention this year – Yankee Rose.

Crown Oaks Tips

Yankee Rose (13/20)

Yankee Rose is the hot favourite to win the Oaks and she’s our pick. The more we tried to find a runner to beat her, the more we liked Yankee Rose in this situation. The David Vandyke trained three-year-old is a multiple Group 1 winner and her form is clearly superior to the opposition.

She won the Group 1 Sires Produce in April during The Championships before being spelled for five months for a well-earned rest. During this campaign she finished second in the Flight Stakes behind the Thousand Guineas winner, Global Glamour, and she followed that up with a Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes win at Randwick over 2,000 metres.

She then took on one of the toughest weight-for-age races in the world, the 2016 Cox Plate, and performed with distinction. She ran third behind champion mare Winx and 2016 Melbourne Cup favourite Hartnell and consequently showed punters just how good she really is.

Conditions are perfect for the filly and we simply can’t see her getting beaten; she’s a champion horse in the making.

Eleonora (8/1)

We can’t get away with only tipping the hot favourite, so we suggest taking Eleonora to place. The New Zealand trained filly was a stylish winner in the Ethereal Stakes at Caulfield last start and trainer Murray Baker knows how to win the big races in Australia.

He’s trained the likes of It’s A Dundeel and Mongolian Khan to win in Australia and he believes Eleonora has the ability to win the Oaks. New Zealand bred stayers dominate the Australian types and she should figure in the finish. There are good place odds on offer.

The Field

There are some quality types paying double figure odds for the Oaks. Missrock finished third in the Wakeful Stakes behind the up-and-coming stayer, Tiamo Grace, and she has carried plenty of market support throughout this campaign.

Sebring Dream is another filly to come out of the Wakeful Stakes at Flemington last Saturday. She finished second after covering ground the entire trip. She has plenty of ability, but lacks the turn of foot that will be needed to win against Yankee Rose. She boasts place claims, but she’s had a long campaign and might have come to the end of it.

Smart As You Think is an interesting runner which has upset claims. The daughter of So You Think was a stylish winner over 2,040 metres last start at Moonee Valley and her name suggests that the connections have a high opinion of her. She’s the fresh runner on the scene who has taken an alternate path to the Oaks and could figure in the finish.

Harlow Gold is on the second line of betting and her last run should be forgiven. She finished sixth at Moonee Valley, but is a filly that takes time to warm up and the bowl track didn’t suit. The long straight at Flemington will give her ample time to wind up and, if hitting the lead down the straight, could take some catching. However, there are too many faults to confidently tip.