Heartbreak City For Martin In Meydan

After so much high class jump racing last week, attention turns to the Flat this weekend with the richest race day in the world taking place at Meydan on Saturday and Naas kicking off the Irish flat season with the Lincoln on Sunday.

Magic Man In Town
Tony Martin’s Heartbreak City has the distinction of being the only horse on the Meydan card to have had his last run over hurdles but that unfamiliar build up for the locals may prove irrelevant if he can win the Dubai Gold Cup for the Here For The Craic Syndicate.

Joao Moreira will retain the ride on the seven-year-old after they were narrowly denied in the Emirates Melbourne Cup. Although this Dubai Group 2 is probably the hottest renewal in some time, it’s probably fair to assume that Heartbreak City would be much shorter than his current odds of 6/1 if he hadn’t ran over hurdles at Leopardstown in January.

Martin made no secret that the Leopardstown race was coming a few weeks too soon for the horse after Melbourne and he will strip fitter for this assignment after being three weeks in Dubai to settle in.

French raider Vazirabad does have Group 1 form and warrants plenty of respect having won the Prix Royal Oak in October, while Kingfisher is a fascinating runner for Aidan O’Brien after 508 days off the track – his last run coming in the 2015 Melbourne Cup.

This is one of the early races on the card, due off at 12.50 Irish time, but it does promise to be one of the most competitive of the day. The long straight at the track in Meydan should suit Heartbreak City and after riding eight winners at the one meeting in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago,

Joao Moreira couldn’t be in better form so the 6/1 price is not to be ignored.

Postponed Can Reel In Another Group 1
Roger Varian’s Postponed will take on Highland Reel and Irish Derby winner Jack Hobbs in a fascinating renewal of the Dubai Sheema Classic on the Meydan turf.

Highland Reel was on Thursday night named as Horse of the Year in the inaugural Sheikh Mohammed awards, but it is set to be fellow nominee Postponed who claims the honours on the track.

Highland Reel has top class form and his ability to compete on such a global stage so regularly is full credit to the team who look after him and his constitution,

but Postponed is himself a high class racehorse who relished this race last year

…and put up, probably the best effort of any horse in this race, when winning at Epsom last summer.

Some people have expressed concern over some of his quirks going into the stalls the last day here and in the fact that he wasn’t able to win that prep run, but nothing went right on that occasion and it’s clear from Roger Varian that he is much happier with the wellbeing of the horse compared to three weeks ago.

Postponed may be a drifter on the day so keep an eye on the betting but keep him on your side.

Recommended Bets:
Heartbreak City (6/1) – 12:50 Meydan
Postponed (2/1) – 4:05 Meydan

*Prices correct at time of publication