Whirl set for Epsom Oaks after 'absolutely destroying' competition The mile classics haven’t quite gone to plan on the whole for master trainer Aidan O’Brien this season, but the Derby and Oaks at Epsom next month could be a different story. O’Brien is stacked with talented middle-distance three-year-olds, and one of them is the filly Whirl. She absolutely destroyed them when winning the Musidora Stakes at York earlier this month and looks well set to follow in the footsteps of Snowfall, who completed the Musidora/Oaks double for this yard in 2021. BoyleSports Betting Offer If you already have a BoyleSports account, check out more of the best betting sites and casino bonuses Pedigree points to Group 1 success Whirl is out of 1m maiden winner Salsa and although her dam failed to reach a high level, plenty of her siblings have done so. Salsa is full-sister to dual 1000 Guineas winner Hermosa and 1m4f Group 1 winner Hydrangea, which certainly bodes very well for Whirl. Sire Wootton Bassett is one of Coolmore’s most ingenious acquisitions in recent years and he has produced some very smart performers for Ballydoyle. His fee currently stands at €300,000 and having produced the likes of Almanzor, King Of Steel and Henri Matisse, it’s very easy to see why. Progressive as a two-year-old O’Brien’s filly didn’t exactly hit the ground running in her juvenile campaign and she was pretty average when fourth and fifth in her first couple of starts. It’s worth noting that the smart filly Red Letter was the winner on debut at the Curragh in July, however. The penny finally dropped at Doncaster in September, however, and she managed to get off the mark with Ryan Moore on board. This daughter of Wootton Bassett was always up with the pace and she saw the trip out well to score by a length-and-a-quarter. Group success then followed upon her return to the Curragh next time and she took the step up to a mile in her stride. Stablemate Giselle was awarded third place in the end, and she bolted up in the Lingfield Oaks trial earlier this month, giving the form a big boost. Huge improvement from first to second run in 2025 Beginning 2025 in a Group 3 up against her elders, she looked nowhere near fit enough for that race and the trip looked too sharp for her, too. It’s no surprise that she was a well-beaten sixth but left that run well behind her at York next time. She drifted noticeably before the off in the Musidora at York but the market clearly missed the memo. Moore rode her up with the pace in the early stages and took the lead approaching the three-furlong pole. Pulling clear impressively late on, she was even more dominant than the five-and-half-length winning margin suggests. The Oaks is the next logical step Part-owner Michael Tabor was unsure if she would be an Oaks filly immediately after, but O’Brien has since suggested she’s a likely runner in the Epsom classic. Whirl was well on top at the finish and there seems little doubt that she can cope with 1m4f. O’Brien obviously has a number of talented horses to aim at the race, having won plenty of trials with the likes of Minnie Hauk and Giselle, but it’s impossible to deny that this filly’s most recent performance indicates that she deserves major contender status.
