Meydan today

The Dubai World Cup Carnival continues today with another strong card, and the GroupThree UAE 2,000 Guineas at 16.55 CET the main feature. Soft Falling Rain (Mike de Kock/ Paul Hanagan) will be hard to beat here; the South African horse is unbeaten and was very impressive when winning here last time, but British bookies have him at odds-on. De Kock also has a good chance of winning the other group race, at 17.30, with the ex-Aidan O´Brien runner Daddy Long Legs (Cjhristophe Soumillon), who won the UAE Derby here last year. Course specialist Barbecue Eddie (Doug Watson/ Hanagan) is an obvious danger here.

The German-trained runners have not shone so far at this meeting, but we think that Lindenthaler (Peter Schiergen/ Andrasch Starke) must have a chance in the concluding turf handicap at 18.40; he was a close 6th here four weeks ago, and we certainly prefer him to stable-companion Silvaner (Ted Durcan), who has been off since Baden-Baden. Ex-German Govinda has twice run badly here so can only be regarded as an outsider in the Group Three 7 furlongs race at 18.05, but German-bred Kassiano (Saeed bin Suroor/ Silvestre de Sousa) won in good style here last time and can follow up in the first race at 15.45.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Royal Empire - Kassiano - Jamr
2. Race: Rerouted - Masteroftherolls - Quick Wit
3. Race: Soft Falling Rain - Fortify - Zahee
4. Race: Out Of Bounds - Barbecue Eddie - Fulbright
5. Race: Krypton Factor - Mental - Kavanagh
6. Race: Anatolian - Adroitly - Bob Le Beau