Dubai Racing Carnival starts today

the Dubai Racing Carnival starts today at Meydan and will be with us every Thursday for the next few weeks with some very high class and competitive racing, far better than anything which can be seen in Europe at this time of year. From the betting point of view, today´s card should be treated with caution; some of the local runners may have a fitness advantage, having already run here in the lesser races this winter, while it is unclear how well the many British and Irish runners have acclimatised. In addition. many of today´s runners have bigger targets to aim at later in the meeting and are just having a prep race today. South African trainer Mike de Kock, for example, who always does well at this meeting, has said that all his runners will need their first race; he may of course be simply playing down his chances, but we shall take his remark at face value and leave him off our tips today.
The opening race at 15.30 CET is a Group One for Arab horses and is followed by a 5 furlongs handicap at 16.05 with 15 runners, which looks extremely tricky. We shall take a chance with Monsieur Joe (Paul Midgley/ William Buick), who was a CD winner here last year when trained by Robert Cowell and still looks well handicapped. The following 9 1/2 furlongs event on tapeta is another open handicap and we go along with course specialist Busker, ridden by our old friend Adrie de Vries, although the ex-American Transparent (Saeed bin Suroor/ Silvestre de Sousa) could be a big danger. Next follows another handicap with a maximum field over 7 furlongs; Fulbright (Charlie Appleby/ Mikael Barzalona) was a group race winner for Mark Johnston in 2012 and if he get back to that level of form must go well in this company.
Then come the two main events.The listed race over 9 furlongs at 17.50 is back on turf; Dux Scholar (Doug Watson/ Pat Dobbs), who ran well at the last 2 big Baden-Baden Meetings, has a chance here, but we would not want to see this owner successful so prefer Tales of Grimm (Richard Fahey/ James Doyle). The Group Two Al Maktoum Challenge R1 over a mile on tapeta at 18.25 is the main feature today, and of course many of the runners are owned by members of the Maktoum family. The most interesting one is Steeler (Appleby/ Barzalona), not seen out since running third in the Racing Post Trophy in 2012. He was one of the 22 Godolphin horses banned following the disgrace of their previous trainer Mahmoud al Zarooni, and is the first of them to reappear now that the ban is over. It might be slightly embarrassing if he were to win straight off, and we just prefer the filly Shuruq (bin Suroor/ de Sousa) in the same ownership, who has run several good races here. Empire Storm (Mike Attwater/ Kieren Fallon) was one of the best German milers of recent seasons when trained by Andreas Wöhler, but we cannot imagine that he is good enough to play a leading role here. A horse that ran in Germany last year that might have a better chance is Arnold Lane (Mick Channon/ Willie Twiston-Davies), winner of the Silberne Peitsche at Munich last May, who runs in the 7 furlongs handicap at 19.00.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Rabbah De Carrere - Nieshan - Areem
2. Race: Bungle Inthejungle - Rafeej - Take Ten
3. Race: El Estruendoso - Specific Gravity - Izaaj
4. Race: Mutin - Bertiewhittle - My Freedom
5. Race: Artigiano - Tales Of Grimm - Dux Scholar
6. Race: Barbecue Eddie - Steeler - Rerouted
7. Race: Anaerobio - Disa Leader - Complicate