Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien has won five of the last six renewals of the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks (2400m), predominately using the race as a stepping stone for propelling Classic-winning three-year-olds into open company.

All of his nine Yorkshire Oaks winners have been three-year-olds, but this year, O’Brien will be represented by the four-year-old Minnie Hauk, victorious on the Knavesmire twelve months ago and attempting to return to winning ways.

Agonisingly denied by a head in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (2400m) at the end of last season, the dual Oaks winner has struggled to recapture the best of her three-year-old form in 2026. A winner of the Group 2 Mooresbridge Stakes (2000m) on seasonal reappearance, she has not won at the top-level since, although demonstrated some of her old sparkle when second in the Group 1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (2000m) at Royal Ascot.

The Yorkshire Oaks represents Minnie Hauk’s first run against female-only opposition since her victory in the contest last year, and she will be using the race as a preparation for another tilt at the ‘Arc’.

“The plan was to go back to the Yorkshire Oaks and then to the ‘Arc’ with her,” said O’Brien on Racing TV. “We rode her a bit too forward in the King George and she got caught beside one of her own in Lambourn and all the way, she was probably a gear too high.

“It cost her in the last furlong or so and she’s one of those fillies that a mile and a half is far enough for her, she wouldn’t want to go any further and as we saw in the race at Ascot, she’s very comfortable over a mile and a quarter.

“She seems well and she’s come out of Ascot very well.”

If successful, Minnie Hauk will join Only Royale (93/94), Islington (02/03) and Enable (17/19) as joint highest number of wins in the contest.

Photo: Focus On Racing