Dubai World Cup Carnival starts today

The Dubai World Cup Carnival starts today at the Meydan racecourse - they have of course been racing there since before Christmas, but until today the races were lower grade and with much less prize-money; now the real season starts with high class racing, and the main event is the Group Two al Maktoum Challenge over a mile on dirt at 18.40 CET. We know from experience that these races are usually dominated by Godophin runners or those trained by the South African Mike de Kock, who has two in today´s field, while the Godolphin trainers Saeed bin Suroor and Charlie Appleby saddle one each. Most of the runners will have later and better targets to aim at, so they may not all be at peak fitness today, but we shall take a chance on Outstrip (Appleby/ Adam Kirby), who won the Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf in 2013 and had some pretty smart form last year in the top mile races; this is his first start on dirt but that is not expected to be a problem.

Back in the U.K. the all-weather racing at Southwell and Wolverhamptpn (late start) is obviously of no interest compared to Meydan, while there is jumps racing at Leicester and Catterick. The latter card is better and the main feature is the North Yorkshire Grand National at 15.40, which looks very open with 12 runners, most of whom have met before and appear regularly in these "National" races. Our two against the field are Pinerolo (Sue Smith/ Dougie Costello) and Scotswell (Heather Graham/ James Reveley), who were both runners-up at Kelso last time. John Ferguson failed to win a race yesterday, but he has a fantastic strike rate here and we expect him to take the novice hurdle at 15.10 with debutant Buckwheat (AP McCoy), who was group class on the flat; the four hurdles winners in the field, who all have a 7 kbs penalty, are the dangers, notably German-bred König Dax (Donald McCain/ Jason Maguire), a winner in the French provinces when last seen in May, and Zaidiyn (Brian Ellison/ Craig Gallagher), who has an excellent Aga Khan pedigree and has already shown good form over hurdles. Howeer if Buckwheat jumps round well, his flat class should be decisive.