Last year’s race

• Winner: Garden Of Eden
• Jockey: Ryan Moore
• Trainer: Aidan O'Brien
• Owner: Mrs John Magnier, Mr M Tabor & Mr D Smith
• Age: 3 Weight: 9st 2lbs
• Starting Price: 7/1
• Season Form Figures: 761
• Previous Best: 1st - Naas Oaks Trial Stakes (Listed), Naas (May 2024)

By Paul Jones

Fillies that contested the Oaks have a fair record given how few fillies have contested both prizes turning out again relatively quickly, recording seven wins since 1997.

The Ribblesdale is not a massively strong trends race but it can still pay to look to a later-developing improver as just seven winners in the last 31 years had been contesting Grou.p races as juveniles so it boasts a very similar pattern in this respect to the colts' equivalent of this race at the Royal Meeting, the King Edward VII Stakes.

It can be argued that the last ten Ribblesdale winners (outside of Covid year when the racing calendar was turned upside down) had contested a recognised Oaks trial in Britain, Ireland or France on their previous run if you want to stretch that to the Prix Saint-Alary. Of those ten, eight were beaten in their trial.

Sticking with a filly’s last run, five winners in the last 24 years won a maiden last time out. The 2019 winner, Star Catcher, was previously third in the Fillies’ Trial (Listed) at Newbury but ended the season as the leading 3yo middle-distance filly adding three Group 1s after her success in the Ribblesdale. The 2023 winner, Warm Heart, won that same Oaks Trial taken by Esna this season and went on to win three Group 1 races after on top of this Royal Ascot success and was also narrowly beaten at The Breeders’ Cup.

Star Catcher was trained by John Gosden as was Loving Dream in 2021 who was previously only fifth in the Lingfield Oaks Trial but she also went on to Group 1 success later in the campaign so was another for the stable to take a big step forward in winning here. The Gosden yard are chasing a fifth win in ten years (also saddled five seconds this century) having also won the Ribblesdale with Coronet and Frankly Darling.

Success for Garden Of Eden last year meant that, now on six winners, Coolmore have surpassed Godolphin (all five for Saeed bin Suroor between 1998-2010 so none as yet for Charlie Appleby) and Juddmonte on the same figure. In fact, Aidan O’Brien is now chasing a four-timer after also winning the two previous editions with Warm Heart and Port Fairy. With regards to Juddmonte, their Bluestocking and Kalpana were only placed in the last two runnings but that pair went onto much greater things so they clearly like to aim a very well-regarded, up-and-coming filly in this race.

Winning form earlier in the season is usually a good steer as 21 of the last 27 winners had won either of their last two starts during the current campaign and 12 of the last 18 winners had won at Group or Listed level at some point in their career.

Following Garden Of Eden’s success last season, the Irish have won half of the last 24 runnings of the Ribblesdale so have collectively they have fared considerably better than in the colt’s equivalent, the King Edward VII.