Kevin Blake's Friday Racing Tips: Back Concert Hall to produce big performance in open Oaks

The Derby meeting is here! I can't tell you how fond I am of racing around Epsom. It is all just so utterly mad.

Anyone who follows racing will be familiar all the cliches about Epsom, the twists, the turns, the uphill, the downhill, the camber. However, it really isn't until one goes and walks the track that the true madness of it is really hammered home. It is unique. In many ways, it makes very little sense that some of the most important races in the calendar are run around such a track, but that is what makes British racing so unique and I can't help but love it.

Because of the unique nature of the track, when looking at handicaps there I am always drawn towards horses that have shown a particular liking for it in the past. There are a few such runners to choose from in the World Pool Handicap (14:35).

Veteran can return to winning ways

Long-term readers may recall that Corazon Espinado did this column a big turn when winning this race at a BSP of 17 last year and while he is back again off an attractive mark here, stall 16 of 16 really is a nightmare pitch for him and that's enough to put me off given he likes to make the running.

The one I've sided with is one of the most admirable veterans on the scene, the Richard Hannon-trained Oh This Is Us. The nine-year-old is a 16-time winner and he gained the biggest success of his career at this very meeting last year in the Group 3 Diomed Stakes.

That was far from a one-off for him at Epsom either, as he has run very well in all four of his outings at the track all of which came in stakes company. Indeed, his Timeform performance ratings for his three runs over this course and distance were 113, 114 and 109+. Considering his career-high rating is 117, it is clear that he operates notably well around Epsom.

The main difference that he will find when he returns to Epsom on Friday is that he will be competing in a notably lesser contest. Rather than running in stakes company, he is contesting a handicap off a mark of 91 having dropped substantially from the mark of 112 he was given after his win at this meeting last year.

He has been shaping well without winning in recent starts and the return to Epsom might well be the spark that helps see him return to winning ways.

O'Brien's Concert Hall can overcome favourite

The main event of the day is the Cazoo Oaks (16:30) and while it has a short-priced favourite at the head of the market in Emily Upjohn, I feel it is a more open race than the bare shape of the market suggests.

Emily Upjohn has been impressive in her two starts this season, but she was notably free on the latest occasion in the Musidora Stakes and that is a concern for Epsom. Not only will she be tackling a longer trip there, Epsom also represents a far more ruthless test of a horse's temperament and ability to settle.

With the Oaks commencing with a brutal 41-meter climb from the stalls, over-racing in that section of the race can be very heavily punished and that is enough to put me off her at her short price.

The one that I like for the race is the Aidan O'Brien second string Concert Hall. Like many of O'Brien's two-year-olds last season, she took time to find her feet, but progressed into a smart filly that won the Weld Park Stakes over seven furlongs at the Curragh.

Within the context that O'Brien's three-year-olds were improving substantially for their first run this season, it took the eye that Concert Hall was able to make a winning return to action in a messy renewal of the Salsabil Stakes over a mile-and-a-quarter at Navan, looking to relish the longer trip.

Dropped back to a mile for the Irish 1,000 Guineas, she ran a lovely race to finish a well-held third to Homeless Songs, but very much shaped as though the drop in trip was against her, getting outpaced from two furlongs out until rallying takingly in the final 100 yards.

Stepping up to a mile-and-a-half looks likely to be just what she wants. Her pedigree very much supports this as she is by Dubawi and out of Was who won this very race on just her third career start 10 years ago. And who was the man in the saddle? Seamie Heffernan, the man now entrusted with her daughter as she bids to emulate her mother a decade down the line.

There certainly would be a great amount of synergy to a Concert Hall victory, but enthusiasm for her chance very much emanates from the form book rather than pattern searchers. All looks set for her to run a big race.