Chantilly and Meydan

France´s newest all-weather track opens today - at Chantilly, which is in any case the leading training centre and home of the two most important classics. This will be an undoubted advantage to the French racing scene and the track has two new 50,000 euro races on the card to attract possible runners at the Dubai World Cup meeting. The Prix Meydan Hotel over 1900 metres at 13.45 CET has certainly succeeded in this aim, as the small field includes two genuine Group One winners and Dubai candidates in Cirrus des Aigles (Corinne Barande-Barbe) and Zazou (Waldemar Hickst/ Olivier Peslier). They met in the Hong Kong Cup, where the German horse did better, but neither has run since and both are expected to need the race. However the other runners, led by Cagnes winners War is War and Tryst may have a fitness advantage but are nowhere near their class so the two favourites should dominate the finish. It is not really a race to bet on, but Zazou could be worth a tiny bet at the like ly long odds. The other big race, over a mile at 15.25, also has a small field but no real stars. Moonwalk in Paris (Jean-Claude Rouget/ Soumillon) and Don Bosco (David Smaga/ Gregory Benoist) should be the two to concentrate on here.

There is also racing in Dubai today, but the Meydan card is of a much lower standard than is usually the case here. With the Godolphin stable in such good form, we expect Saeed bin Suroor and Frankie Dettori to land a double here with Tahaamah in the 11 furlongs handicap on tapeta at 15.45 and top-weight Grand Vent in the 10 furlongs turf handicap at 16.55.