John and Thady Gosden © Photo Healy Racing
John and Thady Gosden’s Danielle emerged as a possible Oaks contender after securing a runaway first success at Wetherby.
Rab Havlin was content to settle the 4-7 favourite in third place behind Winter Life and Cabrera early on in the Burrows Mazda York Fillies’ Novice Stakes over 10 furlongs.
The daughter of Cracksman cruised up to join that pair at the three-furlong pole and then simply sauntered clear to score by 12 lengths.
As a half-sister to Ascot Gold Cup winner Courage Mon Ami, connections will be confident of the Anthony Oppenheimer-owned filly getting a mile and a half if making it to Epsom.
Danielle was third behind 2000 Guineas hopeful Night Raider at Southwell on her sole start as a juvenile and just gave way to the race-fit Winter Snowfall on her return to action at Chelmsford earlier this month, but this was a big step up and she was cut to as short as 20-1 for the Oaks by Sky Bet.
Havlin told Racing TV: “She ran just over two weeks ago and she’s come on plenty since then.
“We thought she’d be a decent filly on turf and we were pretty sure she would handle the (soft) ground, as she’s got quite a wide gait on her, as a lot of those Cracksmans have.
“She was still quickening up going through the line, so I was very impressed.”
He added: “She handles soft ground very well, I’m not saying she needs soft ground, but she handles it very well.
“She got run down by a filly that had had a run previously (at Chelmsford), so it was a good start-off point, she had a good blow after the race.
“She’s improved but she was always going to be a filly that improved markedly when she got on turf.
“She’ll stay a mile and a half, no problem. I think that’s probably where the boss will be looking to go the next day and let’s hope she can keep improving.
“We’ll have to see how she comes out of the race, she probably had a harder race at Chelmsford than she did today, but she went through the gears a lot better today and I think if that filly there today had been at Chelmsford, she’d have won quite easily.
“So, I think we’ll be looking at mile-and-a-half races now and I’ll leave it to the boss to see whether he wants to run her in a trial and where it will be.”
