Eyes north as Meydan Carnival warms up in Dubai

The Dubai Carnival is well underway, with the fourth meeting of the nine-fixture series being staged at Meydan on Thursday.

The headliner is round 2 of the Al Maktoum Challenge, a group 2, over-1900m-of-dirt circuit featuring a number of horses seeking the nod for the $12 million (R176.4 million) Dubai World Cup that rolls around on 27 March.

While South African trainer Mike de Kock doesn’t have a presence in the five black-type races on the day, the high-class card still holds plenty of interest for local bettors.

Frankie Dettori, an eternal favourite with punters, rides the favourite Dubai Warrior in the $293,000 Challenge. Having just been crowned the world’s top jockey in the Longines rankings – at 50, an advanced age for a jockey – the ebullient Italo-Brit is having a golden time while locked down in the desert. He heads the riders’ log with five victories from 12 rides (a 41% win rate), with William Buick second on two from 13.

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Dubai Warrior is trained in England by John Gosden for Dubai’s Sheik Khalifa, whose yellow and blue silks are well known in South Africa (think Bold Silvano and Igugu).

Interestingly, the five-year-old colt lines up against his full brother Mootasadir, a six year old also bred at the sheik’s British stud. The latter is trained by Satish Seemar, will be partnered by Richard Mullen and is quoted in the ante-post market at 18-1.

Both brothers tackle a dirt surface for the first time, though both have very good records on British all-weather tracks. Mootasadir has won six of his nine starts on synthetic surfaces and Dubai Warrior six from eight.

The major differentiator is that Dubai Warrior posted his last win as recently at November 2020 while his older sibling has not raced since September 2019.

Five of Thursday’s contenders did battle in the first round of the Al Maktoum Challenge on 14 January: Thegreatcollection, who was second, Salute the Soldier, who was third, and unplaced Capezzano, Quip and Kimbear.

On the basis of that result, Doug Watson-trained Thegreatcollection gets second spot on the betting board at 4-1. The US-bred seven-time winner is a three-year Dubai resident and cannot be ignored in any betting perms.

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Salute The Soldier, similarly, seems to be hitting form, as does Blown By Wind.

The second Group 2 on Thursday’s programme is the Al Rashidiya, which is all about well-travelled David O’Meara charge Lord Glitters, who disposed of four of this field in a previous meeting in January.

Will the French-bred, British-based eight-year-old grey suffer the old second-run-after-a-break syndrome?

That’s just one of the puzzles on an evening of top-end action.

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