Kevin Blake has put Thundering On forward as his form pick for the Betfred Oaks at Epsom on Friday, even as he tipped a hat-trick of best bets across Oaks Day. The selection came in the main race at 4:00, where Blake judged the Joseph O'Brien-trained filly the one to side with.
That matters because The Oaks is the race readers are searching for now, and Blake did not hide from the scale of it. He called the Epsom Classics here and described the track as the most ruthless test of a racehorse anywhere on the planet. In that setting, he still came down on Thundering On, a daughter of Frankel out of the Group 1 winner Thundering Nights, after pointing to her steady progress through four starts and her win in the Salsabil Stakes at Navan.
Blake's Oaks view sat inside a full card of selections. He sided with the Karl Burke-trained Ice Max in the Betfred Diomed Stakes at 2:40, noting that the horse had finished a good third to Lambourn in the Huxley Stakes at Chester, then ran well again at Goodwood, and had been a close second in this race at Epsom last year. For the Betfred 'Nifty 50' Handicap at 3:15, he took a chance on the seven-year-old Auld Toon Loon, saying the Tom Dascombe-trained runner had shaped well in his last two starts and would have no fears if the rain that arrived kept the ground on the easier side.
The real pull of the card, though, was the Oaks itself. Aidan O'Brien held what Blake called a very strong hand, with Amelia Earhart and Cameo named as the two main contenders. Amelia Earhart was described as a very solid filly after what she showed at Chester, while Cameo arrived off a Lingfield win and had shortened in the betting. Even so, Blake still made the case for Thundering On, saying she remained a fair price and was the form pick in the race.
That leaves the familiar Epsom problem in place: the form horse is not always the horse that gets the run of the race over 12 furlongs. Blake said as much, noting that the later a horse is delivered, the better its chance, and that, unorthodox as the track is, the best horse over the trip does usually prevail in the Classics there. Friday's answer comes at 4:00, and that is where Blake's confidence in Thundering On will either be justified or quickly tested.
