Trainer Aidan O’Brien reportedly had a couple of other fillies in mind (Together Forever and Outstanding) at first, but Wedding Vow’s career-best form has earned her the call-up.

You wouldn’t have seen this coming a month ago. The royally bred daughter of Galileo and Oaks (G1) runner-up Remember When (herself a three-quarter sister to Dylan Thomas) was still a maiden trying to live up to her pedigree.

In her sophomore debut, Wedding Vow was collared late in a soft-ground Leopardstown maiden by Zannda. An Aga Khan homebred, Zannda subsequently placed in Newmarket’s Pretty Polly and in the Blue Wind (G3) (to future Irish 1000 Guineas [G1] winner Pleascach) and recently landed the Give Thanks (G3).

Climbing into stakes company thereafter, Wedding Vow was a well-beaten second in the Victor McCalmont Memorial to Legatissimo, who went on to win the 1000 Guineas (G1), miss narrowly in the Oaks (G1) and the Curragh’s Pretty Polly (G1), and impress in the Nassau (G1). Finishing fourth in the McCalmont was older Beverly D. rival Carla Bianca (who was conceding the sophomores 17 pounds).

Off that performance, Wedding Vow was dispatched as the odds-on favorite in a weak Lingfield Oaks Trial, but had to switch out for room and could do no better than third. She looked a bit green, lugging in and taking a while to switch leads: