Meydan Saturday Mar. 28th

[Kitan]

Originally Posted by Kitan

Race 2 (Godolphin Mile):
#1 Tamarkuz $3.90 winner
#15 Sloane Avenue 2nd @ 8-1
#11 Haatheq 4th @ 50-1
#2 Free Wheeling 3rd @ 90-1

$1 Tri 1/15/2 $747.35

Race 3 (Gold Cup):
#13 Rio Tigre
#8 Bathyrhon
#7 Marzocco
#14 Brown Panther $6.30 winner
#9 Almoonqith
#12 Vaasa

Race 4 (UAE Derby):
#7 Golden Barrows 3rd @ 5-2
#4 Sir Fever
#1 Mubtaahij $4.50 winner
#2 Alnajem Alfaiz

Race 5 (Al Quoz Sprint):
#2 Bundle of Joy 5th @ 7-1
#4 Via Africa
#16 Peniaphobia 2nd @ 3-1
#14 Distinctiv Passion
#3 Hototo

Race 6 (Golden Shaheen):
#13 Cool Cowboy
#8 Lucky Nine
#12 Super Jockey 2nd @ 30-1
#7 Secret Circle $6.30 winner

Race 7 (Turf):
#4 Earnshaw 5th @ 50-1
#10 Solow $5.60 winner
#8 Cladocera
#6 The Great Gatsby 2nd @ 9-5

Race 8 (Sheema Classic):
#2 Dolniya $19.80 winner
#4 Flintshire 2nd @ 5-2
#7 Designs On Rome 4th @ 7-2
#9 Harp Star

$1 Tri 2/4/6 $376.45

Race 9 (World Cup):
#5 Lea 3rd @ 2-1
#9 California Chrome 2nd @ 4-5
#3 Hokko Tarumae 5th @ 10-1

Thanks all. It said we could bet $0.60 denominations for Dubai but no surprise to see we couldn't...lucked out in the sense that I was able to splurge in the early event and played the Tri for the minimum buck instead of $0.60 as I had thought...should have gone for the $8k Super!!

Some thoughts...we'll be hearing from Sloane Avenue in the dirt division later in the year...never been a big fan of Big Macher but thought he ran great today, especially given the start...Dolniya looks the new female star...no excuses for the Americans in the WC...

And as for Mubtaahij...impressive to the eye but again not sure what he beat. I was high on the Japanese runner but it does appear that he couldn't stay the trip. Sir Fever got into quite the trouble early and as a result didn't show his true ability. There was nothing else of substance in the field and he sat the perfect trip behind the wide and dueling leaders. It's hard to talk about time, regardless of it being an overseas race, because he wasn't fully extended, but even if he ran a few ticks faster it was still comparatively the slowest run dirt race of the day, although it doesn't mean too much as the other races were all older G1 races. I still stand by what I've been saying in that I don't think he's done anything to date to convince me he can run on the dirt at a level good enough to win a race such as the KY Derby. Question marks make a contender's prognosis murky, and he's got a plethora of them. And, on top of all that, the last horse to win the Derby with a similar dosage profile was Count Fleet...He's been dropped to the third favourite overseas in the futures market. I can't be willing to take that.