Arkle Finance Cheshire Oaks
Fillies' Listed, Chester 14:40 £60,000 added, 3yo only, 1m 3f 79y, Class 1
Wednesday 4th May 2016

1 Somehow 8/15F
2 Moorside 10/1
3 Diamonds Pour Moi 6/1
8 ran Distances: ½l, ½l, 2¼l
TIME 2m 29.05s (slow by 6.35s)

Somehow only just delivers a fifth Cheshire Oaks in nine years to Aidan O’Brien

Somehow
© Ladbrokes

Ryan Moore's mount took an age to find her stride and was niggled along with more than half a mile to travel with only one of her rivals behind her.

In a race run at a decent gallop, when Play Gal kicked on from the front before the home turn, the injection of pace took plenty of her rivals by surprise.

However, she was unable to sustain the gallop and was passed over a furlong out by Moorside and then by the winner and Diamonds Pour Moi, both of whom had taken time to reach top gear around the track's tight turns.

At the line, Somehow was safely on top and beat the rallying Moorside by half a length, but backers who took the 8/15 might have preferred a slightly more polished performance.

That said, O'Brien likes to take runners to Chester with a view to educating them, and Somehow can only have gained from the experience. She was cut by SkyBet from 20/1 to 16/1 for the Investec Oaks.

"Ryan was very happy with her. She's just sleepy. No matter what she works with, if it's a fast horse or a slow horse, she does the same thing and she will have learnt a lot," O'Brien told Racing UK.

"She's got a beautiful pedigree and I think she's in the Oaks shortlist. We knew she was one that had the most to learn and we didn't have long to teach her, so we thought this was the place to try and teach her.

"She's very lazy and docile at home. I was a bit worried after about half a furlong, but Ryan gave her a masterful ride, taught her plenty. We bring the green ones here to try and sharpen them up mentally - it just wakes them up."

O'Brien also has Minding in the equation for the Investec Oaks, after her 1000 Guineas victory last Sunday, and the trainer said it was still early days as to whether she runs next at Epsom, in the Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh, or even both.

"All of those races are open to her," he said. "She only cantered today and I'd say the next 10 days will tell us a lot. There are two weeks between the races and we have run horses in both races before, but we don't have to do that. We have good horses to fall back on if we don't."

Arkle Finance Cheshire Oaks
(Robert Sangster Memorial Cup) (Fillies' Listed)
£60,000 added, 3yo only, 1m 3f 79y, Class 1
8 ran
Going: Good (Good to Soft in places)