Sariska fails to be moved as Midday takes Oaks

IT is not unknown for fillies to misbehave, especially on Ladies' Day, but Sariska, the favourite for the Darley Yorkshire Oaks, highlight of the third day of the Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival, put herself beyond the pale yesterday when she mulishly refused to leave the stalls and presented Midday with another Group One triumph.

In fairness to Midday, trained at Newmarket by Henry Cecil and already a proven top-quality filly with a Breeders' Cup victory on an impressive CV, she may well have won even if Sariska had consented to take part but the events at the start took a little of the gloss from Midday's triumph.

Sariska had a long wait in the stalls as Barshiba, the mount of Paul Hanagan, had to be blindfolded and cajoled by a platoon of handlers to take her place and when the starter pulled the handle jockey Jamie Spencer could not induce Sariska to move.

Ironically, when the break came it was Barshiba who grabbed the initiative and took the field along at a strong gallop while Sariska was shamefacedly extricated from the stalls.

Midday and this year's English and Irish Oaks winner Snow Fairy were the next pair in the betting after Sariska and when Barshiba faded it was the class horses who took command with Snow Fairy perhaps hindered at the very moment Midday set sail for home but there was no doubting the winner's superiority at the finish.

That was little consolation for those who had backed Sariska, who had a clear edge on Midday when the two met at York earlier this year.

If Midday was the controversial winner of the afternoon, the most popular was the hugely-impressive Wootton Bassett who missed Wednesday's Gimcrack in favour of yesterday's opening DBS Premier Yearling Stakes, a six-furlong contest with total prize-money of 300,000.

Trained at Malton by Richard Fahey, Wootton Bassett, unbeaten in his previous two runs, was backed down to 5-4 with the next two-year-old in the market, Cape To Rio, rated no better than a 9-1 chance and the favourite obliged in the style of a potential Group horse.

Wootton Bassett was quickly out and always prominent and won smartly from Kieren Fallon's Galtymore Lad with Paul Mulrennan and Chiswick Bey third.

He certainly ensured those ladies with thirsts had plenty of funds to help drown their sorrows after Sariska's flop later in the afternoon.