EPSOM (England), June 4: Eswarah, the 11-4 joint favourite, emulated her dam, Midway Lady, when landing the Oaks here on Friday for jockey Richard Hills and trainer Michael Jarvis. Something Exciting finished second with the Irish contender Pictavia getting up to edge out Kieren Fallon on the English 1,000 Guineas heroine Virginia Waters for third.

Midway Lady won the fillies classic in 1986 for trainer Ben Hanbury, who supervised Eswarah’s two-year-old career last year before retiring and handing her over to Jarvis.

“All credit to Ben, in his retirement he’s been very helpful and all the way along he has said ‘this filly is good’. But I said to him ‘just good? She’s better than that’.”

“She’s done it well. Eswarah’s an exceptional filly,” added the unassuming Newmarket trainer who was celebrating his second English classic.

Eswarah, who was taking her career record to three wins out of three, swept through two furlongs out after the strong early pace was cut out by Hills’ twin brother Michael on Magical Romance.

Fallon looked to be going strongly on the other joint favourite Virginia Waters but she appeared to run out of stamina in the closing stages as Dream To Dress briefly took it up in the straight but Hills then got to work and Eswarah hit the front.

Something Exciting then emerged as the main danger, bursting through on the outside but at the line Eswarah proved one and a half lengths too strong for David Elsworth’s runner, with Pictavia a further three lengths adrift.

Hills reflected: “I was conscious that with a filly who had only two runs, I didn’t want to be on the inside, so I gave her a chance to see some daylight to allow her to run her race like she normally does.”—AFP