Al Rashidiya at Meydan

The Group Two Al Rashidiya, to be run this afternoon at 18.15 CET at Meydan, is the best race so far of the Dubai World Cup Carnival. The ten furlongs event on turf is seen as a major prep race for the Dubai Duty Free, and Presvis (Luca Cumani/ Ryan Moore), who won both races in 2011, is now going for the double. He has not since April, but always goes well fresh, so that should be no trouble.

He needs a fast-run race in which he can come from the rear, but is not certain to get that today. The most serious opponent is undoubtedly course specialist Musir (Mike de Kock/ Christophe Soumillon), who has an easy win at Meydan already to his credit; that was on tapeta, but he goes equally well on turf. Ex-German Win for Sure (Xavier Nakkachdi/ Gregory Benoist) and ex-French (Al Raihe/ Royston Ffrench) are both genuine Group Two performers but are probably not good enough to trouble the two principals. The rest of the card consists of handicaps and we expect Godolphin´s winning run at the meeting to continue. African Story (Saeed bin Suroor/ Frankie Dettori) at 16.20, Time Prisoner (Mahmood al Zarooni/ Dettori) at 17.00 and Capponi (ditto) at 17.40 all have winning chances.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Tertio Bloom - Sir Reginald - Internationaldebut
2. Race: Barbecue Eddie - Escape Route - Il Grande Maurizio
3. Race: Hunting Tower - Otaared - Time Prisoner
4. Race: Capponi - Sarrsar - Ibn Al Nafis
5. Race: Musir - Presvis - Rajsaman
6. Race: Quick Wit - Bank Of Burden - Manjakani