Not Really a Comp But Post your selections here

12:40 Godolphin Mile Sponsored By Meydan Sobha (Group 2) (Dirt) 1m
1:15 Dubai Gold Cup Sponsored By Al Tayer Motors (Group 2) (Turf) 2m
1:55 UAE Derby Sponsored By The Saeed & Mohammed Al Naboodah Group (Group 2)
2:30 Al Quoz Sprint Empowered By IPIC (Group 1) (Turf) 5f
3:05 Dubai Golden Shaheen Sponsored By Gulf News (Group 1) (Dirt) 6f
3:40 Dubai Turf Sponsored By DP World (Group 1) (Turf) 1m1f
4:15 Dubai Sheema Classic Presented By Longines (Group 1) (Turf) 1m4f11y
5:00 Dubai World Cup Sponsored By Emirates Airline (Group 1) (Dirt) 1m2f

12:40 Godolphin Mile: Sloane Avenue
1:15 Dubai Gold Cup: Almoonqith
1:55 UAE Derby: Mubtahij
2:30 Al Quoz Sprint: Ahtoug
3:05 Dubai Golden Shaheen: Rich Tapestry
3:40 Dubai Turf: The Grey Gatsby
4:15 Dubai Sheema Classic: Flintshire
5:00 Dubai World Cup: Hokko Tarumae

12:40 Godolphin Mile: Bradster
1:15 Dubai Gold Cup: Brown Panther
1:55 UAE Derby: My Johnny be Good
2:30 Al Quoz Sprint: Distinctiv Passion
3:05 Dubai Golden Shaheen: Secret Circle
3:40 Dubai Turf: The Grey Gatsby
4:15 Dubai Sheema Classic: Main Sequence
5:00 Dubai World Cup: Chrome


There is some tasty value.

The grey Gatsby 7-2, how is he not Fav.
Bradster is 16-1 in the Mile, I'm having some of that.
My Johnny Be Good 33-1, take away his last run and there's no way he's that price.
Distinctv Passion shouldn't be a 33-1 shot.

I was only going to back Chrome+Secret in a double but there's to much value not to have a few shillings on some of the other horses.

12.40 Tamarkuz
1.15 Almoonqith
1.55 Sir Fever
2.30 Farmah E/W
3.05 Secret Circle
3.40 The Great Gatsby
4.15 Harp Star
5.00 Hokko Tarumae E/W

Biggest bets for me this weekend

Tamarkuz - Catch me if u can ( Nap )
Almoonqith - Pick them up at the 2 pole & its bye bye
Zarwaan - Lincoln - Got 12's for him last week & Ed is very very kind on him ( NB )

Good luck with all bets everyone

Here goes nothing...


12:40 Godolphin Mile Sponsored By Meydan Sobha (Group 2) (Dirt) 1m - Gold City
1:15 Dubai Gold Cup Sponsored By Al Tayer Motors (Group 2) (Turf) 2m - Havana Beat
1:55 UAE Derby Sponsored By The Saeed & Mohammed Al Naboodah Group (Group 2) - Golden Barows
2:30 Al Quoz Sprint Empowered By IPIC (Group 1) (Turf) 5f - Peniaphobia
3:05 Dubai Golden Shaheen Sponsored By Gulf News (Group 1) (Dirt) 6f - Super Jockey
3:40 Dubai Turf Sponsored By DP World (Group 1) (Turf) 1m1f - Euro Charline
4:15 Dubai Sheema Classic Presented By Longines (Group 1) (Turf) 1m4f11y - Flintshire
5:00 Dubai World Cup Sponsored By Emirates Airline (Group 1) (Dirt) 1m2f - Candy Boy

Well I enjoyed those races. Nice spread of nations winning too. I took great joy in the run of Super Jockey. My thinking on him was his last race was his first on dirt and he won against the ultra tough Hong Kong sprinters. Then off to the Golden Shaheen? He was well meant.

Tamarkuz is a beast. Missing the break and still getting up to win.

Brown Panther - Would he fire today or not was the question. My guess was no. Question answered emphatically.

Mubtaahij - This one has a great future. Loved the Japanese barricade set up during the first half of the race. Barricade soon fell.

Sole Power - Gah! I had serious thoughts on him as I love older horses at the top of their game as he was just last year. His last race was just bad enough to throw me off

Solow - I love how they are racing this gelding. Slow n steady through lighter company and now he thumps a World Cup field at 5.

Dolniya - Could she win this race against these horses off that cheap prep race I asked? I answered no...

Prince Bishop - Anyone give this 8yo a shot after having lost this race last year? Slow pace helped a lot. Chrome needs a mile and an eighth. Lea the same.

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I made it a competition just for the hell of it. 3 points for first place finish. 2 for second. 1 for third.

mj - 10
ghost - 10
pj - 10
nash - 8
sirius - 7

Is it just me who feels that the Dubai World Cup has become a bit of a gimmick now? The last few runnings of the race haven't been won by world class horses and it's doubtful that the winnners will replicate the form in Europe. The last two runnings were won by horses at double figure odds, the races have been a bit messy and the quality is lacking. Prince Bishop? African Story? Well Armed? Gloria de Campeao? These are horses who are average and would be beaten out of sight in subsequent European Group races.
The surface only suits a handful of horses and overall, the race is poor considering it's the world's richest race. I have more interest in the Dubai Duty Free and Sheema Classic.

It's a bit like the Irish Derby: a very substandard Group 1 dominated and won by the home team. It comes at an awkward time of the year; it's funny, given it is the richest race in the world, people seem use it as either an after thought or as a prep for the forthcoming season. European's, naturally, are unfamiliar with the surface and the US have other, more prestigious, races back at home.

Ive said this for the whole carnival, think the dirt has took abit of competition out of the races. They cant do much money with prize money to attract horses. Overall ive been abit dissapointed this year.

That was one poor meeting for me, the dirt course is not a dirt course and they have fractional times but they don't give them to u unless the commentator tell's u.

After watching the first dirt race the US horses looked like they were going to be in for a tough day, Brad+Prayer were beaten a long way from home. I think Circle only won because of his class.
The course is running more like a AW course then a dirt one, the times were very slow and I couldn't believe the first 4 furlongs of the World Cup were run in nearly 50.00sec, on proper dirt that would have been more like 47.sec.A horse like Lea should have cruised along because he his more a 8/9 furlong horse but even after running slow he was getting pushed along over 3 furlongs out. To me it looks like a home town course in that if u not run on it or been based there all winter then u are at a major disadvantage.

Hopefully that makes the american horses run in a trail or be based there most of the winter.

I think the course is suited to AW runners, if any trainer got a top class AW horse than they should run in it. Take for instance Sloane Avenue who ran a monster race and is best suited to AW( his best races so far have been on Poly), Toast of New York would have been a monster on that course.

Will be interesting to see what the US trainers make of the course, if they hated it then the World Cup would be in trouble because the top Euro horses don't go for it.

It will be interesting to see how Mubtaahij gets on in the Kentucky Derby, it is one of the hottest Derby's in years. I hope they send Tamarkuz to the US to see what he could do over there.

Just about Sloano Avenue, he has a real dirt pedigree so that was never going to be a problem and i agree id love to see Tamarkuz have a go later in the year in america although im not quite sure how many Shiehk Hamdam has in america. Personally i dont think the american's can complain there werent many excuses for the horses that got beat. Mubtaahij looked special yesterday but the race was set up for him with the 4 in front going far to fast. On that race what a weird race Maftool ran He'll surely go onto Kentucky if he gets a run.

They must have a couple hundred horses between them in the US, just like over here they turn Royal Blue if any good. Most of his Horses run in New York. I look at the US horses like I look at our horses that go run on dirt first time, they were climbing on the surface instead of running through it. Mubtaahij one problem is that they will go 2 or 3 seconds quicker the first 4 furlongs and how will he deal with it, hopefully he will go straight there now and have a few weeks to get use to the track. I though Maftool ran a interesting race and he should give it a go.