Dubai Golden Shaheen Tips & Betting Preview 2018

IN SUMMARY: Although Roy H deserves his place at the head of the betting all the work watchers from the International media have been far more taken with last year’s winner MIND YOUR BISCUITS (Each Way) who has oozed class during his morning work and looks all ready to defend his crown. This won’t be easy but he is a decent price in the circumstances and a big run is very much on the cards.

1 MIND YOUR BISCUITS – A good looking son of Posse who won this race last year and who has looked a picture on the track in the mornings all week, delighting trainer Chad Summers who feels he has him as well as he has ever been. He has won once and placed three times since that victory so is hardly over-raced in the circumstances, and although beaten a head at Gulfstream Park when overturned at odds of 2/5, that was only a prep race and if he is fully tuned now as seems the case he will take a lot of stopping here.

2 X Y JET – One of the shorter priced options here after three wins in a row now at Gulfstream Park (twice), and more recently at Tampa Bay Down on a fast dirt surface when shooting clear for a wide margin seven length success. The form of those races is acceptable but not world-beating, but he did finish second in this race back in 2016 and has looked a far better horse since returning from over a year off and may yet have even more to offer over the next year or so for trainer Jorge Navarro.

3 REYNALDOTHEWIZARD – One of the most popular horses in Dubai at the age of twelve and heading towards retirement but does he have one more big run in him despite his advancing years. Trainer Satish Seemar is convinced he has lost none of his early sparkle which has seen him win ten races and place in seven others and earn connections over £1,385,000 in prize money. So far this season he has finished third in both starts here, beaten four and a quarter lengths last time out and although he did win this in 2013 a repeat sadly seems unlikely, though it would bring the house down were it to happen.

4 WILD DUDE – Silvestre de Sousa has been booked to ride but even he may struggle to bring a decent challenge out of the eight-year-old who hasn’t won in twelve races now stretching back to May 2016 when trained by Jerry Hollendorfer in the USA. Last time out he finished third to Jordan Sport here but was nine lengths adrift at the line and seems more likely to finish last than first in this field.

5 MATERA SKY – Looking for his hat-trick here after wins at Nakayama and more recently Kyoto when he hacked up by five lengths in a decent time. More on his plate now but he stays further than this so won’t mind a decent early pace as seems likely, massively overpriced considering he has Yutaka Take in the saddle.

6 ROY H – Odds on now for this event after winning the Grade Two Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita last month by a very easy three and a half lengths hard held on his first race since winning the Breeders Cup Sprint at Del Mar by a length from Imperial Hint with Mind Your Biscuits two lengths further back in third. Clear form pick on that run but his odds are appalling in such a competitive field.

7 SHILLONG – Five career wins from sixteen starts but all of them have been at Jebel Ali with five unsuccessful runs elsewhere. On official ratings he has over a stone to find with the favourite and with his trainer struggling for winners lately he seems one of the least likely winners here and is fairly easily dismissed in this standard of line-up.

8 MY CATCH – Plenty of early each way money for Doug Watson’s gelding but it is difficult to see why based on his last run when a nineteen and a half-length last of eleven to Jordan Sport here earlier this month. He did beat Comicas four lengths over course and distance in February which is decent if not exceptional form and the son of Camacho has to bounce back to his very best and then some if he wants to get involved in the finish here.

9 JORDAN SPORT – A winner last time out over course and distance in a Group Three earlier this month where he finished over seven lengths clear of the field, with Wild Dude and My Catch in behind. That was a career best for the five-year-old who is reunited with Adrie de Vries this afternoon, but it seems unlikely he will have things so easy at the front today and that may be enough to worry him out of a follow-up victory.