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Queensland Oaks – the underrated race of the carnival?

Queensland Oaks – the underrated race of the carnival? Pic: Getty

The Queensland Oaks is often the overlooked Group 1 event of the Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival, but the race has an honour roll that includes a number of the most talented fillies in the history of Australian racing.

A discussion about the great Queensland Oaks winners needs to start with 1977 victor Surround, who remains the only horse in history to win the Cox Plate as a filly.

Surround won 12 of her 16 starts as a three-year-old and after taking out the Orr Stakes in Melbourne and the AJC Oaks in Sydney, she made the trip to Queensland and beat Florissa and Northern Prayer to complete a remarkable VRC, AJC and Queensland Oaks treble.

It took almost 25 years, but in 2001 a classy Kiwi filly Ethereal put her name forward as the most talented horse to win the Queensland Oaks.

Ethereal stormed home from the tail of the field to record one of the most visually impressive wins in the history of racing and unlike Surround she went on with the job as an older horse.

The Sheila Laxon-trained mare became just the 11th horse to complete the Caulfield Cup/Melbourne Cup double during the subsequent Spring Racing Carnival and she remains the last horse to have captured the prestigious double.

It is tough to see Ethereal’s fast-finishing Queensland Oaks victory getting overtaken as the most memorable win in the races history, but it is fair to say that Winx has taken over the title as the most talented horse to win the Queensland Oaks.

Her comfortable victory in the Queensland Oaks last year was her first win at the highest level of racing, but the superstar mare has not looked back since and has added outstanding victories in the Epsom Handicap, Cox Plate, Chipping Norton Stakes, George Ryder Stakes and Doncaster Mile to her racing resume.

It is highly unlikely that there is a horse as good as Winx in the 2016 edition of the Queensland Oaks, but it is set to be a very competitive affair and is shaping one as one of the best betting races of the carnival.

The depth of the race is highlighted by the fact that boom Kiwi filly Provocative, who is currently on the second line of the 2016 Queensland Oaks betting market, is no certainty to gain a start.

She made her Australian racing debut with a very comfortable win at Ipswich and she looks as though she will relish the step-up to 2400 metres, but she needs a horse above her in the order of entry to be withdrawn.

The key lead-up to the Queensland Oaks is always the Roses at Doomben two weeks earlier and the majority of the leading chances are set to come out of that race.

Kebede ($11) scored an upset win in The Roses, but the market suggests that she can’t capture the double and the likes of Imposing Lass ($6), Dawnie Perfect ($8), Falkenberg ($8) and Ambience ($10) have been backed to turn-the-tables on their rival.

She might not win the race, but there is little doubt that Robert Smerdon-trained Chabaud will be the fittest horse in the Queensland Oaks field.

Chabaud took out the Tasmanian Oaks over 2100 metres in February and since then she has run in the Noel Rundle Handicap (2000 metres), Australian Oaks (2400 metres), Mother’s Day Handicap (2000 metres) and South Australian Fillies Classic (2500 metres).

The other filly that brings a different form line into the Queensland Oaks is Roger James-trained Romantic Maid.

Romantic Maid had a disrupted campaign in New Zealand – she lost her rider as favourite in the Championship Stakes at Ellerslie on April 23 – but her Australian debut at Royal Randwick on May 18 was very impressive.

When you throw in the likes of Self Esteem, Tavi Bay, Dulverton, Zasorceress, Alaskan Rose and Queen Of Wands, this is clearly one of the deepest Queensland Oaks fields in recent memory and it could end up being the race of the carnival.