Irish Oaks 2023 Betting Tips
The Irish Oaks is a Group 1 Flat race held in Ireland run at The Curragh, county Kildare. It’s considered the premier race in Ireland for three-year-old thoroughbred fillies. It will be the feature race of the two-day Juddmonte Irish Oaks Weekend and will take place on Saturday, July 22, 2023, at 15:45.
It is Ireland’s equivalent of The Oaks, though it lags in terms of its existence by over 100 years. Whereas the English version of The Oaks first took place in 1779, the first-ever edition of the Irish version didn’t come around till 1895.
Just like with the English versions of the races, it’s one of the five classic contests, alongside the Irish 1000 Guineas, Irish 2000 Guineas, Irish Derby, and St. Leger, with all five of the Irish versions taking place after their English counterparts.
For sponsorship reasons, it will once again be known as the Juddmonte Irish Oaks. Juddmonte is the international thoroughbred horse racing and breeding enterprise founded in 1980 by Prince Khalid bin Abdullah, over the years breeding over 100 individual Grade 1 winners. The winner is guaranteed €285,000 in prize money, and there’s over €500,000 in total prize money in the race.
Irish Oaks 2023 List of Runners
- Savethelastdance
- Warm Heart
- Bluestocking
- Azazat
- Lumiere Rock
- Be Happy
- Comhra
- Library
Irish Oaks 2023 Tips
Check out our betting tips for this year's Irish Oaks:
The favourite: Savethelastdance
Jockey: Ryan Moore Trainer: Aiden O’Brien
We’ve already talked about Aiden O’Brien’s record in this race with six winners in it already over the years, and how he’ll be looking to make it seven on Saturday to go clear of Sir Michael Stoute.
And it's his best chance of doing that. Remembering that he has no fewer than four entries in the race and is with Savethelastdance, who is favourite at around 11/10.
For starters, he couldn’t have wanted a better jockey in the saddle with Ryan Moore (a winner in 2021) on board in a race where experience could be vital.
But if the horse’s form is anything to go by, Moore’s expertise may not even be needed that much. It won two of its last three races (at Leopardstown and Chester) which included one of the most comprehensive wins you’ll ever see, winning the Cheshire Oaks by 22 lengths. It then came second in the recent Oaks at Epsom last month, beaten only by Soul Sister, who as we know, wasn’t entered in this one. It’s a relatively short-priced favourite but with good reason.
One to consider: Warm Heart
Jockey: Seamie Hefferman
Trainer: Aidan O’Brien.
The biggest rival to O’Brien’s favourite is O’Brien’s second favourite! Latest odds have it as 7/2.
Warm Heart won each of its last three races at Leopardstown, Newbury, and Ascot, and was runner-up (also at Leopardstown) in the one before that. Its form is just as good if not better than its stablemate, Savethelastdance.
It should however be noted that it was Ryan Moore in the saddle for three of those four races, and that’s certainly a factor in why Warm Heart is a considerably bigger price here.
But there really might not be much in it, and if the favourite goes on to win, Warm Heart should certainly be the one chasing it home, so an each-way bet could prove profitable.
Doing the Double
By this, we mean the horses who over the years have prevailed in both the Epsom (English) and The Curragh (Irish) versions of the race in the same season.
Curiously, between 1895 and 1947, no horse managed to win both. Then between 1953 and 2000, there were nine horses achieving the feat.
But in the 18 editions of the two races between 2004 and 2021, six horses went on to win both, a good indication that the success in the English version may well lead to further success on Irish soil.
Among the most notable winners in terms of doing the double are: Ouija Board (2004), Alexandrova (2006), and Enable (2017).
But there will be no double this year, with English Oaks winner Soul Sister preferred by connections to run the Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp followed by the Nassau at Goodwood, rather than heading over to Ireland.
Notable records by trainers and jockeys
Jockeys to have been winners of the Irish Oaks reads like a ‘who’s who’ of the best English and Irish jockeys of the last 70 years or so.
Lester Piggott, Pat Eddery, and Kieren Fallon all won it on three occasions, Willie Carson was triumphant on four occasions in the Oaks, the great Frankie Dettori (retiring at the end of this season) won it in five, but only one man won it on six occasions.
That was Jonny Murtagh, who, aboard Moonstone in 2008, won the last of those six.
In terms of horse racing trainers, it’s that familiar name popping up at the top of the tree: Aiden O’Brien won it on six occasions, most recently with Seventh Heaven (2016) and Snowfall (2021).
But he’s not the only one with six: English trainer Sir Michael Stoute managed the same with Petrushka, the last of those in 2000.
What Aiden O’Brien does, however, have is an outstanding record of having horses finishing at least in the Top 3, practically year-in-year-out.
And the smart money is on him becoming the stand-alone most successful trainer in this race ever with seven wins in the very near future.