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Captain's Blog - 3rd February 2011

I am heading off the the studio shortly to be part of the Presentation team for the afternoon. My main task will be to guide the ship between Wincanton and Meydan, but I am also looking forward to chatting to Richard Hoiles about the Meydan card which is an exceptional one. Nick Luck will be out and about for us at Wincanton so everything is in place for an interesting day.

The feature event at Meydan is Round 2 of the Maktoum Challenge. This is effectively a warm up race for the Dubai World Cup. The Carnival so far has been dominated by Mike De Kock and Godolphin and they look set to doninate this race as well. The De Kock trained Bold Silvano is the favourite. This horse won the Grade 1 Durban July ant Greyville beating a horse called Irish Flame who is now also in the De Kock yard. Irish Flame hardly boosted the form last week when well beaten in the feature event and there is also a question mark over whether this horse will handle Tapeta as well as he does turf. Spring of Fame won a handicap off 107 last time and did so comfortably, this is a step up in grade but he is worthy of his place in the field and the form of the yard is exceptional. I would not be suprised if Gitano Hernando ran well. He was my fancy fort eh Dubai World Cup last season and he is a proven Tapeta performer. He was only beaten just over 2 lengths in the World Cup and on the turf last time he was 4th in the Champion Stakes at Newmarket. You could argue that he is the class act in the field and may be the value from a punting point of view. I would prefer it if Kieren Fallon was riding him, but you cannot have everything in life I suppose and Weichong Marwing is a very competent replacement. All in all I do not think the race has much strength in depth and these three should dominate. Famous last words I know but you have to put your neck on the line in this game!

Two weeks ago I was keen on stressing here on the blog that Mahboobah was the one for the UAE 1000 Guineas. She finished second that day in her trial to a stable companion called Reem. Now with an extra furlong to run over she should reverse the form. She is strongly fancied to d so and there is an argument that this has been her target since she arrived in Dubai and probably needed the run last time. She is likely to be an odds on shot but should prevail.

I am setting off for an interesting day in the studio. All the best folks.

Today’s Selection

2:00 Southwell - Feet of Fury