Sean Levey Friday rides blog: 'On his best form he deserves to be favourite'

Assaranca is my only other ride of the day on Friday. She's the outsider of the field, but it's one of those; she's ran here before and shown the track doesn't inconvenience her, as such. She finished third and was dropped a pound for that performance. 

She then dropped back in trip to seven furlongs at Lingfield, where I thought that there was a pace collapse and she ended up winning nicely. She went up to 79 for that run, but the owners look like they want to upgrade her CV and get her some black type. I'd imagine that's what she's here to do.

Look, obviously you'd have to be a bit hopeful, because on paper she's got so much to do and find on the top of the field. It's a huge ask, but you'd hope you can take any opportunity you're given here.

I think it's hard to look past the favourite [Amelia Earhart] in the Oaks. She was quite impressive when I saw her run in Chester, where she went through the race very relaxed, and when she turned in and Ryan [Moore] asked her to go, I mean she was on top of the line before she even got a chance to show off those big strides of hers. With that in mind, for me we've only actually seen half of what she's capable of. 

I'd imagine she's going to be hard to beat, but at the same time, it's an Oaks; it's always going to be competitive, and they're fillies - they have a lot to deal with, and you have to take into account the specialist track... you need a good horse to navigate it.

I think there's one other who might give her a run for her money. Thundering On won a Group 3 at Navan where she looked like a very strong traveller. It's a very stiff trip there, and she seemed to gallop all the way to the line. You'd imagine that Epsom would suit her, with that in mind. 

From the perspective of just watching racing, it's very hard to take on Coolmore overall, as they tend to hold all of the cards. You want to see the great supporters of racing coming out on top, keeping that incentive going. You know, Ralph Beckett has three runners in the race, which shows he always finds the best horses for it. And you always want racing to be competitive; Coolmore would say the same thing... you just want a competitive race, but ultimately of course the favourite is going to be hard to beat.

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