The second meeting of the 2020 Dubai World Cup Carnival takes place tomorrow, please find below the Week 2 Meydan Overview and bet selections written by Racing TV’s Angus McNae.

Meydan Overview & Selections – Week 2:

Week 1 of the Dubai International Carnival brought with it an outstanding performance from the three year old filly Final Song. She posted a really good Timefigure which makes her the outstanding candidate for the UAE 1000 Guineas. This division is traditionally quite weak but this filly looks to be an outstanding leader of the group and the two fillies that finished behind her are clearly useful too. The Doug Watson team are hopeful that Rio Angie can turn the form around in the Guineas but there can be little excuse for her defeat here and at the moment Final Song clearly heads up this group.

Secondly from last week my eye-catcher for your trackers is Dubai Legacy. He finished 5th to Major Partnership on the turf and did well to finish so close having been slowly away and last turning into the home straight. This looks to be a strong race and Dubai Legacy looks to be a future Carnival winner.

Week 2 brings with it a superb renewal of Round 1 of the Al Maktoum Challenge which figures on an excellent eight race card.

As ever, four selections for you:

10:05am Meydan – Ekhtiyaar

This horse improved a good deal on the turf towards the end of the Meydan 2019 season and he can regain the winning thread here. He was impressive in victory here last February and thereafter was deemed good enough to contest the Al Quoz sprint. He finished 9th in that Group 1 and was subsequently rested before reappearing on the dirt behind Ibn Malik at a domestic meeting here at Meydan. He will strip fitter for that and a run on the dirt will have really sharpened him up for a return to his favoured turf strip here at Meydan.

11:15am Meydan – Benbatl

This former Dubai Turf winner is one of the best horses we will see at the Carnival this year and this early appearance adds a classy edge to this card. On decent ground he is one of the best horses in the world from a mile to 10 furlongs and he will take some beating here. He was an impressive fast time winner after a break at Newmarket last season before finding the ground too soft and essentially bouncing out of that big Newmarket effort when tried in on British Qipco Champions Day at Ascot. He has had time to get over that now and although he will return at restrictive odds he will be very hard to beat here at a track that suits him well.

11:50am Meydan – Zakouski

This horse has clearly had training problems but Charlie Appleby has persevered with him and he could just be very well treated. In late 2018 he comfortably beat the subsequent Group 2 winner Headman and that gives us a real indication of his latent ability. He has only run once since and that was when running disappointingly behind Skardu in the Craven Stakes. He has been off the track a long time and we are guessing as to how much ability that he retains, but he could just be way too good for this group. Handicaps may be a thing of the past after this race.

12:25am Meydan – Muntazah

This is an excellent renewal of Round 1 of the Al Maktoum Challenge and from a good draw in stall 1 I take Muntazah to be the one to dominate this field. He set a new one mile course record when winning here on Super Saturday last year and a performance something akin to that will see him win easily here. He is tactically versatile so even if Heavy Metal crosses him from stall 3 he can just angle out and sit outside that rival into the straight. His main rival is North America who was impressive when winning this last season but stall 8 does not help him given that he likes to dominate and bully his rivals. There is also a suspicion that Muntazah is best fresh and if so he will he mighty hard to beat here.

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