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Leahurst wins after being punted all day long. Money flooded in for this horse in the bookies in Newmarket today......... They knew!

Ya know, I kinda like it when the boys in blue have bad days in Dubai (even though I thought they'd do well today).

After Simon (ummmmmmmm, what's this) Crisford said the horses were all in great form, better than previous years.............. :D

Got to love him, and his clueless ways.

Definitely longer than Santa Anita - it is more than 2 furlongs, closer to 450 meters.

I noticed the name Wigberto Ramos with a few mounts. Is that the same jock who rode in S. Fla about 20-25 yrs ago?

also Luis Jurado was riding well at Calder, does he get any live mounts over there?

yep it reminded of Presvis last year - everybody was on him and knew he wouldnt be beaten.

I left the meeting alone from a punting point of view today, and probably will next time, too. However, the lads at Noseda's certainly didn't.

A quote came out in the bookies about the horse earlier today while I was watching a couple of races "2's?..... you'll be sorry" No idea who he was, or the amount he had on, but sounds like plenty knew.

Yes, and it wasn't that long ago. He and Jurado ride for King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia.

Can somebody post the PPs when they are up for Dubai. I will put on another clinic in international handicapping.

http://dubairacenight.com/form-guide...eek-at-meydan/

I will post the Americanized form at that link as soon as it is available.

Thankyou Pat. Im probably going to run out the entire card.

The Racing Post website has a brilliant Meydan pullout available for download for any enquiring minds - highly recommended..

http://www.tvg.com/forms/MeydanPPs020410.pdf - For Thursday

For Thursday

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It seems as though a few trainers are already starting to voice their concerns over the Tapeta track.

So far none of the horses who are familiar with the usual dirt surface of Nad Al Sheba can perform to anywhere near the same level as they do on this new Tapeta surface.

I'm interested to see what trainers you speak of...cause as far as I'm concerned, the local horses who've gotten well over Jebel Ali are, for the most part, outclassed with all these shippers. Otherwise, no one else who gets over dirt is running here, just the Jebel Ali runners. And with that, Montpellier ran a cracker today and King of Rome has come on from his initial run at Jebel Ali. The Carnival classes up the joint and even more horses are there this year than before, which makes the competition tough.

Tolu said jardim couldn't handle the surface. You can see him being scrubbed on 400 meters out. He's trained poorly over it, and he ran poorly over it. No trditional dirt horses will handle tapeta, it's the turfiest of all the paper mâché tracks.

Only time will tell how this surface holds up to the climate. My guess is it will be tore out inside 4 years

"Only time will tell..."

Maybe....

But it has put up with the equivalent of four Dubai summers, three at Al Quoz and one on the Meydan training track. Tapeta is SO dissimilar to any of the other synthetic surfaces, it's uncanny. And, after all, you know how good those South American dirt tracks are...

Took them a couple seasons to start falling apart ocer here pat. They were all great, all the morons here loved them. Now all the idiots are crying about them.

As for the south American dirt courses...... They aren't the best but they are "traditional" dirt. A traditional dirt horse simply will not handle tapeta. I'm sure it's great for the carnival because more European horses can transition, possibly hold their form on tapeta. Whereas on the dirt they would stink up the joint

I'm a huge fan of international racing. I love seeing all the good horses converge, but essentially this is a turf festival

They have tested the surface significantly in regards to the climate, so I doubt that will ever be a problem...... And I cannot see them ripping it out without serious incidient beforehand as the negative press would be HUGE.

Pat,

Both Suroor and Barton have said that proven dirt specialists don't seem to handle it. Suroor wasn't complaining, he just said that after the disappointments of Midshipman and My Indy.

However, Barton was livid today - he said it was pointless buying the horses he has for the carnival as they are nearly all dirt horses and they won't handle it. I didn't see/read the interview but my mate said that he almost threatened not to run another horse on the Tapeta surface as it is so turf friendly, and would suit very few of his horses.

More and more people will begin to make concerns if this does continue to happen.

I'm all for synthetic surfaces as they have been proven to be safer for both horse and jockey, the kickback is much reduced and it seems to be a fair surface, but it acts so much like turf. I expected it to bring turf horses and dirt horses together on a surface both types of horse could handle well (and I believe that is their main reason for choosing Tapeta) however, it is almost like turf itself.