Dubai World Cup meeting at Meydan

plenty of good racing today but clearly pride of place has to go to the world´s richest race meeting, the Dubai World Cup at Meydan. The world´s most valuable race is the Dubai World Cup itself over 10 furlongs on dirt at 18.00 CET and the local Godolphin stable has a tremendous record here. African Story (Saeed bin Suroor/ James Doyle) won it for them last year and tries again at the age of 8. He won his trial well enough, but today´s opposition löooks much stronger, especially the Americans and the Japanese. The track surface has been changed back to dirt to atract the Americams and California Chrome (Art Sherman/ Victor Espinoza) is going to be hard to breat. The second U.S, runner Lea (Bill Mott`/ Joel Rosario) and the main Japanese hope Hokko Tarumae (K Nishiura/ H Myuki) could be two main dangers; we think that the Godolphin runners will do well to be placed this time.

The rest of the card is equally high class and competitive, and with the dollar so strong, much more valuable than for the past years. The Sheema Classic over 1 1/2 miles on turf at 17.15 sees Main Sequence (Graham Motion/ R Maragh) and Flintshire (Andre Fabre/ Maxime Guyon), first and second in the Breeders Cup Turg, cölash again and the Japanese filly (H Matsuda/ Ryan Moore) as well as Hong Kong star Designs on Rome (John Moore/ Jose Moreira) add a new dimension. Main Sequence is unbeaten since joining Motion and perhaps he can maintain this admirable record in a very tough race.

The Dubai Turf (previously the Duty Free) over 9 furlongs at 16.40 is another race to have attracted top international stars and Solow (Freddie Head/ Maxime Guyon) is the likely favourite; he is much improved but the other French runner German-owned Clacodera (Alain de Royer-Dupré/ Christophe Soumillon), already a winner twivce in Meydan this year, looks equally strong, while The Grey Gatsby (Kevin Ryan/ Ryan Moore) is still the one to beat on his excellent form in France and Ireland last season.
The sprint races at 15.30 (on Turf) and at 16.05 (on dirt) Looks really tricvky, but the U.S. and Hing Kong horses are likely to dominate. However we would obviously love to see Sole Power (Eddie Lynam/ Richard Hughes) win ths race for Ireland on his fifth attempt
The best chance of a British winner is probably Brkiwn Panther (Tom Dascombe/ Richard Kingscote) in the Gold Cup over 2 miles at 14.15. His Irish St. Leger win last season is easily the best form in the field and he runs best when fresh.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Manark - Versac Py - Bigg N Rich
2. Race: Tamarkuz - Surfer - Sloane Avenue
3. Race: Brown Panther - Bathyrhon - Ahzeemah
4. Race: Mubtaahij - Golden Barows - Maftool
5. Race: Peniaphobia - Bundle Of Joy - Sole Power
6. Race: Secret Circle - Rich Tapestry - Salutos Amigos
7. Race: Solow - The Grey Gatsby - Mshawish
8. Race: Harp Star - Designs On Rome - Flintshire
9. Race: California Chrome - Lea - African Story