Let’s start by wishing you all a very Happy Valentine’s day as I try desperately to use up a few words this week with hardly any racing on here in the UK thanks to some horrendous weather and pretty dim prospects for the weekend too.
Luckily for me we have a big wide World of horse racing to delve in to while the rains fall, though I admit I am pretty jealous of my press room colleagues enjoying the Dubai sunshine while I am forced to wrap up warm. Meydan raced again on Thursday afternoon, though what we really learned worth knowing is very much open to question. With the Group Three on the dirt failing to inspire with precious little depth (despite Capezzano setting a new stakes record), it was the Balanchine (Group Two) on the grass that saw me reaching for the record button, and to no great shocks it was Godolphin via Charlie Appleby and William Buick who once again took the spoils at their home track.
Exactly why Magic Lily seems to be on an upward curve at the age of five is beyond my limited comprehension but improved she has with a fairly smooth passage throughout before being pushed to the front over a furlong out and running on strongly for a length and a quarter success. A lightly raced daughter of New Approach with just six races on the clock, there may well be even more to come, though whether she is up to the highest level still seems open to question and she may prove difficult to place from now on barring similar races, assuming any can be found where she escapes having to carry a penalty.
Meanwhile politics and sport continue to mix just and well as oil and water amid al he controvercy regarding the Saudi Cup at the end of the month. I am no expert on human rights etc, but I do know a few journalists who have refused to go for moral reasons seeing this as a whitewashing of their problems but either way, we have some high class racing coming up. It seems fair to say that pretty much all of the Worlds’ top jockeys will be there (though that is subjective), with the likes of Frankie Dettori, Mike Smith and Yutake Take joined by Nanako Fujita, Nicola Currie and Sophie Doyle for the ladies (go on Sophie, such a great ambassador for the sport and a superb jockey too as are all those named above).
More of Saudi in two weeks’ time as we approach the big race day but where do we start this weekend when pretty much every meeting of any significance is under threat and holds a last minute inspection. To my amazement the answer to my own question is Cagnes-Sur-Mer near Nice in the South of France. Sadly I won’t be there in person, but I will be cheering on Irish raider Bowerman in the 2.50pm with Pierre-Charles Boudot an eye-catching jockey booking. Trained in County Dublin by Adrian McGuinness the six-year-old Dutch Art gelding has won both starts this season at Dundalk over a mile and then a mile and a quarter plus so is clearly adaptable, though this will hopefully be his first success in Listed company. A win here gets him in to the Lingfield good Friday card with plenty of money up for grabs and with reports that he is in top form at home I will be backing him here in the hope he goes off at a half decent price.
Avoiding all the jumps cards with the predicted high winds possibly an even bigger danger than any overnight rain and my second suggestion for Saturday runs on the polytrack again, only this time at Lingfield. Dublin Pharaoh has already seen a ton of money go down the drain after being beaten four lengths at odds of 2/1 on his Chelmsford debut before a length and a quarter defeat over this trip at Newcastle when the 11/10 favourite in mid-December. He cont9nues to work upsides with previous winners on the Newmarket gallops and is considered a winner waiting to happen by trainer Roger Varian – hopefully today is the day in a race that looks short on depth at first glance unless something is hovering ready to pounce with Win Win Power a possibility to take the villain’s role and stop us having a winner.
On Sunday it may well be Lemming day as I go over the cliff following the once unbeatable Beauty Generation in Hong Kong. He may well not be the force of old at the age of seven I suppose but on Sunday he drops back to six furlongs for the first time ever despite a career history of thirty-two starts (and sixteen successes) which intrigues. Whether he is ridden differently or will try to get away quickly enough to attack from the front as he has over further is the unknown quantity but it is a brave move by trainer John Moore and you can never write of Joao Moreira around Sha Tin, so expect some fireworks.
Sean’s Suggestions:
Bowerman 2.50pm Cagnes-Sur-Mer Saturday
Dublin Pharaoh 2.00pm Lingfield Saturday
Beauty Generation 7.20am Sha Tin Sunday
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