Meydan Overview & Selections – Week 1:
The 2022 Dubai International Carnival at Magnificent Meydan where the Dirt meets the Turf begins on Friday. The action gets underway with two feature races – the Al Maktoum Challenge on the Dirt and the Cape Verdi on the Turf. Both races have attracted plenty of runners and the whole card is of the highest quality, with some decent international challengers adding spice to the meeting.
Four selections this week. All the best!
9:35am ET Meydan: Taking Names
Despite a dull effort last time out I think this Doug Watson trained colt can bounce back to the sort of form that saw him when his maiden impressively here last November. In that race he travelled powerfully and thrashed Summer Is Tomorrow, who went on to win a maiden by 4 1/2 lengths next time out. Faith in the selection requires forgiveness for Taking Names did not fire last time up, but he was slowly away and had to take a lot of kickback. He merely plugged on in that race and it’s possible that he recoiled a bit from his big first-time up effort. Pat Dobbs will be keen to get him to break better this time and make full use of his inside draw in stall 1.
10:10am ET Meydan: Wirko
You won’t go far wrong if you follow Charlie Appleby and William Buick on the Turf at Meydan and this lightly raced individual looks the ideal type too thrive under these conditions. He has only had four career starts, winning two of them and his win in the Listed Blue Riband trial at Epsom was achieved despite inexperience – and won in a fast time. Compared to most of his rivals today he is relatively unexposed and open to improvement. He has been off the track since running poorly in the Chester Vase in May where the prevailing soft ground may have been against him. The beautiful turf carpet at Meydan will definitely suit him and it looks like he...
