Thursday's Meydan Selections & Updates - 26 January

I wasn't going to look at any of the racing for Thursday but rather spend some time researching and laying down prep work for Cheltenham......and then I remembered the Thursday racing at Meydan (which I love!).  My hubby doesn't take so long picking his horses for Cheltenham!  He arrives, finds a runner with a native American (can't say red indian any more!) name and chooses that one!

So here Iamlooking at sand (not strictly true, its tapeta) and camel jockeys (well there's only Ahmed Ajtebi but that is true- he really was a camel jockey as a boy) and some quality flat racing for the winter......

	Meydan	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:45	Silaah (EW) UP
2	15:20	African Story 1st	As De Trebol (EW) UP
3	16:00	Regal Parade UP
4	16:40	Sarrsar 2nd
5	17:15	Rasjaman UP
6	17:50	Al Shemali (EW) UP

2/            You definitely need a low draw over 7f here (55.26% winners drawn low).  African Story has been working well on tapeta so the lack of course form doesn’t worry me too much and is by far the class in the race.  As De Trebol is the main threat in my opinion – he has course and distance form and the low draw and wasn’t disgraced here LTO in 4^th when he went hell for leather duelling for the lead in what is the 2^nd fastest 7f race here ever.  He has competition for the lead from Captain Ramius (who is drawn the other side) but his jockey should have learned some from his last run (hopefully)

3/            Not such a marked draw bias on turf over 7f as the tapeta!  Time Prisoner is drawn similarly high as for his C&D win LTO but also has an extra 3lbs.  Both he and Regal Parade will have come on for the run but Regal Parade has a pull in the weights this time and although there is unlikely to be a gallop to chase, he has been ridden prominently in the past so can adapt!

4/            The middle draw at this distance is big fat negative and this is what Capponi has today (but he still won!).  Sarrsar has a great record on synthetics (3 from 3 at Lingfield and here) and has a wonderful turn of foot and although Capponi has a 2lb pull this time, I don’t see it being enough to beat Sarrsar.

5/            This is all about the draw on turf over 9.5f.  Low to middle is preferable.  Rasjaman has been contesting some far superior races and was last seen in the Hong Kong Mile in December. Al Raihe and Royston Ffrench both have good track records and with the step up to 9f likely to suit I’m on Rasjaman each way. Presvis has been off the track for some months (which won’t be a worry) but Cumanis three recent runners have finished 13/13, 11/12 and 12/14 which doesn’t bode well (by the way the only reason Fallon isn’t up is that he and the horse “don’t get on”).  Musir has won four times here but all on tapeta (although De Kock says he is better on turf) and the draw doesn’t appeal.(but he still won!)

6/            I’m hoping for a good day for the Nicholls and for the Al Raihe/Ffrench partnerships!  Al Shemali was until very recently with Godolphin (Al Zarooni) and ran in the Sheema Classic here last season so the potential to win this relatively lowly race.  He’s bobbing on now though and I would say this is the most open race on the card so I’ll not be investing too much £££ in him.  Nanton may do better than his 16/1 suggest as well!

Not such a clever day with a  loss of -4.29 

By the way, if anyone reading this blog is in to UAE racing then this site has an online racing magazine which features mainly Jebel Ali but also some Meydan and Abu Dhabi (nice feature on Nichols on page 26) and is quite interesting reading.  


Just for info, the top three trainers at Meydan are currently 

My nightly nap is so darn easy today:

Newcastle 16:15

Lucia Bay
1st