Best bet for the horseracing at Meydan Friday 16th February 2024 - The Dubai Carnival

Just the one bet this week so far saw Inverlochy getting caught in the shadow of the post at Kempton Park on Wednesday evening. My concentration is very much in the Middle-East as we head into the weekend with the latest meeting at the Dubai Carnival in Dubai and of course the three-day HH Amir Sword Festival having begun on Thursday at Doha Racecourse in Qatar. The big races at Doha aren’t until Saturday; a number of Brits are out enjoying the sunshine in Qatar but more about that at the weekend. It is a fairly low-key meeting at Meydan this week with a few tricky handicaps but there is a bet to be had.

Best bet for the horseracing at Meydan.

Beautiful Love bids to continue Godolphin’s perfect record in the three-year-old turf races at this season’s Dubai Racing Carnival when she runs in the Mile Defender 130 Stakes at 2.05. She stayed on well to take second behind odds-on stablemate Cinderella’s Dream in the Jumeirah Fillies’ Classic two weeks ago and will surely leave her current t mark of 88 behind during the course of this season. The Bookies are taking no chances though and at 1-2 she is sadly unbackable; remember the name though. Nature Watch, a four-year-old son of Curlin, makes just his third career start for Charlie Appleby in the Mile Defender 130 Outbound Edition Maiden Stakes on the Dirt at 2.40. He wasn’t seen on track until November last year when just beaten over 1m1½f on the Tapeta at Wolverhampton, he was then a disappointing sixth over 1m2f at Lingfield on the Polytrack in December leading until fading a furlong out. His sire having been an outstanding dirt performer over 9-10f and US Horse of the Year in his career and his dam Saucy Dame being an unraced mare by Distorted Humour, another high-class US dirt colt over 7-8f, there is every reason to believe the lightly raced four-year-old will enjoy the surface and should have much more to offer this season. A win here will no doubt have the team at Moulton Paddocks plotting a US campaign for this one. I have a bit of the 6-4.

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