Huge weekend for international racing

This is the best weekend of the year for international racing, with two superb cards from Longchamp, top class racing at Belmont Park and Santa Anita in th U.S. and excellent racing today from the U.K. We shall start with Longchamp, where there are 4 Group 2 races today, as well as Group One for Arab horses - not much compared to tomorrow´s feast, but still one of the season´s top racecards.

Admittedly, two of the Group 2´s are pretty weak by the standards of this track- the Prix Chaudenay for 3yo´s over 3000 metres at 15.40 CET with only 5 runners and the Prix de Royallieu for fillies and mares over 2500 metres at 16.50 with only four. They are not good betting races, but our selections are Gaily Game (Jean-Claude Rouget/ Olivier Peslier) and Modeyra (Saeed bin Suroor/ Frankie Dettori) respectively.

We expect Godolphin to have a massive day, both in France and England, and hope to see Rio de la Plata (bin Suroor/ Dettori) take the Prix Daniel Wildenstein over a mile at 16.15. He holds Rajsaman (Freddie Head/ Thierry Jarnet) on their running in the Prix du Moulin here and is a real CD specialist. Set the Trend (Andrew Balding/ David Probert) is another British possibility here, while Royal Bench (Robert Collet/ Ioritz Mendizabal) and Best Desting( S Wattel/ Gregory Benoist) could also go well.

However the best race of the day is clearly the Prix Dollar over 10 furlongs at 17.25, which is of Group One quality and features the great Cirrus des igles (Corinne Barande-Barbe/ Franck Blondel), who would have a good chance in tomorrow´s Arc (he is a gelding and therefore barred from running). He is equally effective over this trip, loves Longchamp and was an easy winner here last year. The opposition looks strong, but he still stands out. We would love to see the two Germans run well- Durban Thunder (Torsten Mundry/ Terry Hellier) and Theo Danon (Peter Schiergen/ Andreas Suborics) and will risk a small place bet on each, although they face a really stiff task. Durban Thunder made all to win at Munich last time but may struggle to confirm that form with runner-up Famous Name (Dermot Weld/ Pat Smullen) who is now 6 lbs better off. Byword (Andre´ Fabre/ Maxime Guyon) and French Navy (Mahmood al Zarooni/ Ahmed Ajtebi) are two others of Group One class in this really hot rac e.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Everett - Caraside - Lady Orpen
2. Race: Kiss de Ghazal - Al Zad - Eauvation des Cedres
3. Race: Honneur Supreme - Rudyard - Totxo
4. Race: Pacifique - Miss Lago - Gaily Game
5. Race: Royal Bench - Rio De La Plata - Rajsaman
6. Race: Shamanova - Sea Of Heartbreak - Modeyra
7. Race: Cirrus des Aigles - Famous Name - Byword
8. Race: Cat Melody - Sun Sea Bird - Madeenh