Coursing history in the VRC Crown Oaks

The daughter of Alabama Express raced to the head of betting for the Group 1 event with a dominant win in last Saturday’s Group 2 Wakeful Stakes (2000m).

That 2000m Group 2 Wakeful is the first leg of one of the most-completed doubles in Australian racing.

Thirty-eight times the Wakeful winner has gone on to win the Oaks five days later.

That is from just 87 attempts meaning the Wakeful winner has a 43.67 percent strike-rate in the Oaks.

Amazonian Lass and Zennzella, the past two Wakeful winners, are not among the 38 to have done the double but Willowy (2021), Miami Bound (2019) and Aristia (2018) have all done so recently.

The Wakeful still provided last year’s Oaks winner, however, with Zardozi atoning for her second placing to Amazonian Lass with a dominant win in the Oaks.

Personal (2020) is another recent Oaks winner who finished second in the Wakeful and in the past 40 years there have been 26 Oaks winners who came through that lead-up.

Treasurethe Moment is one of six fillies engaged in this year’s Oaks who ran in the Wakeful, joined by minor placegetters Powers Of Opal and Killcare Beachgirl, along with Inevitable Truth (fourth), Talisay (sixth) and All Kinds Of Folk (ninth).

Powers Of Opal was Oaks favourite before the Wakeful and while she has been displaced by Treasurethe Moment at the head of betting at $3.10, the Sydney filly retains the second line of betting at $4.

The Oaks was famously won by $101 chance Lasqueti Spirit in 2016 but that was an extreme exception in a race that has been dominated by fillies towards the head of the market.

Zardozi won as $2.70 favourite last year, making it three favourites in a row and 10 in the past 20 years with Lasqueti Spirit the only winner at longer than $7 in that time.