Love, the 4-9 favourite, made short work of her field in the Group One Yorkshire Oaks here on Thursday and cemented her place at the top of the market for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October.
The feature race on the second day of the Ebor Festival resembled an exercise gallop as Ryan Moore sat Love in second behind the pace-setting Manuela De Vega before easing to the front halfway down the long home straight. Love had no difficulty maintaining a healthy lead under a hand ride and stretched further clear in the closing stages to cross the line five lengths in front of Alpinista, a 33-1 outsider.
Love
🏇 Ten races
🥇 Six victories
✅ Four-time G1 winner
🏆 1000 Guineas
🏆 Oaks
🏆 Yorkshire Oaks
♥️ A superstarLove is magnificent under Ryan Moore in the Darley Yorkshire Oaks to provide Aidan O’Brien with a fifth success in the G1 event @yorkracecourse @Ballydoyle pic.twitter.com/9rjCMDVtJO
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) August 20, 2020
Love took the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket in early June before running away with the Oaks at Epsom a month later. A win in the St Leger next month would make her the first winner of the fillies’ Triple Crown since Oh So Sharp in 1985, but she is expected to skip Doncaster and go straight to the Arc on the first weekend in October.
Three-year-old fillies have a strong record in Europe’s showpiece event in recent years and Love is now the clear 5-2 favourite for the Arc (from 3-1) with Paddy Power. Enable, the winner of the race in 2018 and 2019 and the runner-up last season, is a 3-1 chance while Ghaiyyath, an outstanding winner of the International Stakes here on Wednesday, is available at 6-1.