Friday’s card at Meydan looks very competitive. There are certainly some exciting 3-year-olds on show, most notably the recent Jebel Ali maiden winners Marsoom and Attwaal. Those races should provide some clues for the Carnival races in the New Year, but we do have a Listed Sprint for the older horses and some decent form lines from the November meetings to follow. Here are a couple of horses who have caught my eye amongst this week’s declarations.
Al Garhoud Sprint (Race 5)
Colour Up has an exceptional record before the turn of the year, which currently reads at 211-1- in the months of November and December. He was the winner of this race 12-months ago and has to be considered for Doug Watson, despite the fact that this is his first start since 30th March. Last season he landed this contest by blasting away from the start, with opening sectionals of 13.57, 10.44 and 11.19s. He did all of that after being bumped at the start and forced to race 5-wide around the turn. However, the closing sectionals of that race (12.12 and 13.59s) show a finishing speed of 94.36% and this year he looks to face a much tougher assignment in the form of Mojeyrr.
Already a winner this season on 8th November, Michael Costa’s 4-year-old has been on an almost continuous upward curve and he looks likely to have far too much speed for his main rival. He broke well to get to the inside rail last time, with opening splits of 12.42 and 10.45s and having taken 4.4s to reach 20 mph, he looks almost certain to be in front at the 2-furlong pole if he breaks on terms. However, perhaps more noticeably, he finished in 11.83 and 12.87s last time, the best in the field and with a run-out speed of 31.41 mph, he was far from all out at the line. With a fitness edge, this looks to be an excellent opportunity for him.
Go Soldier Go should be ready to fire.(Race 7)
Several of these horses met in the Thunder Snow Handicap last month and at the time, but whilst there is a swing at the weights between the first and second (Lahresh and Saayedd), I think that a better case can be made for Go Soldier Go. I highlighted him in my weekend review a couple of weeks ago as a horse to be with next time and although his record in Dubai reads as 2-1-13, he shaped like a horse who would come on for his first run of the season and he looks to have an excellent chance at the weights here. Having been slowly away, he was as much as 12-lengths off the pace at halfway, but he made sustained progress through the field, closing in sectionals of 12.92 and 13.23s and as the TPD Pace Chart above shows, he had significantly more left at the finish than the 2 rivals who finished ahead of him. Both wins in Dubai have come when he has had the benefit of a recent run and with the presence of Lahresh and In Crowd in this field again, he looks almost certain to get another strong pace to aim at. If
Adrie de Vries can get him to break slightly better from the gate, I would expect him to be staying on best of all in the closing stages.