Monterosso, Camelot, Maybe, vie for honours at Derby Festival

Dubai Excitement is building for this week's Derby Festival at Epsom, which holds promise of some breathtaking action and a heavy dose of pomp and pageantry as Queen Elizabeth II launches her diamond jubilee celebrations at the track.

More than 200,000 racing fans are expected to descend on the historic Downs on Friday and Saturday to watch top equine stars like Dubai World Cup hero Monterosso, 2,000 Guineas sensation Camelot, the unbeaten five-race winner Maybe and St Nicholas Abbey compete for some of horse racing's most lucrative purses.

The first day's racing centres on the Epsom Oaks, the third of Britain's five Classic races and the second of two restricted to fillies. It is also the middle leg of the Fillies Triple Crown, preceded by the 1,000 Guineas and followed by the St. Leger.

Dubai's Godolphin are looking for a fourth success in the 2,400-metre contest with the exciting Kailani, who was supplemented to the field at a cost of £20,000 (Dh115,049). Bred by Monsun, Kailani is out of Kazzia, one of three Godolphin winners of the Classic. The others are Moonshell, who won in 1995, and Balanchine, who gave the stable their first Oaks victory in 1994.

Mahmoud Al Zarouni, who trains the unbeaten Kailani, commented on the decision to supplement the filly.

"Kailani has done nothing wrong in both her starts to date, and we decided to take a chance by running her in the Oaks," he said earlier this week.

Form improves

"She worked really well on Friday, and I think that she has improved since her run at Newmarket. We were quite easy on our horses at the beginning of the season and a lot of them have come on for their first start.

"She won her maiden on good ground, but we cannot say 100 per cent whether she will handle good to firm until we run her on it.

"It's the same with her handling the course, although I expect that the step up to a mile and a half will suit her.

"We don't know how good she is and we are waiting for her to surprise us."

Kailani won her maiden over a mile at Yarmouth on her only start as a two-year-old before making a smart reappearance in the listed Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket on May 6, when she beat Hazel Lavery by seven lengths. The current market leader for the Oaks, and one of six possible starters for Ireland's champion trainer Aidan O'Brien, is Maybe. The Galileo filly was undefeated as a juvenile in 2011, when she notched five victories, including one at Group 1 level in the Moyglare Stud Stakes. She finished third behind stable companion Homecoming Queen in the Group 1 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket on May 6.