Dubai World Cup Night Preview

Bold Showing - Giovanni Boldini can win the UAE Derby

The flat is definitely back in a big way this weekend and while the Lincoln will take centre stage on the domestic front at Doncaster on Saturday, internationally all eyes will be on Dubai for World Cup night at Meydan.

I don’t have a strong opinion this year on the world’s richest horse race, other than that I think last year’s Derby winner, and current favourite for the race Ruler Of The World looks vulnerable and that last year’s fourth Side Glance, the rank outsider of them all, could again outrun his price amidst reports of impressive work out on the course earlier today.

I do however have some stronger opinions on some of the races on the undercard.

Kentucky Derby 2013 Preview

Optical Illusion - Orb can flash past his rivals in Saturday's Kentucky Derby

The 139th running of “the greatest two minutes in sport” has lost a bit of its interest for me this year as the two horses I picked out a while back for the race now won’t run due to injury.

So with both Shanghai Bobby and Violence “off the Derby trail” as they like to say in the US, it’s been back to the drawing board in recent weeks for me.

I would love to see Aidan O’Brien’s Lines Of Battle win but he looks to face a stiff task if he is to do so, but he won well in the UAE Derby at Meydan on World Cup night, although the form of that race is yet to really be tested, and with Ryan Moore missing Saturday’s racing at Newmarket to take the ride you’d have to give him a chance, if only an outside one.

My idea of the winner though is a horse called Orb; a horse that has coincidentally beaten my original two picks in two of his prep races. He narrowly accounted for Violence in the Fountain of Youth and then won the Florida Derby impressively with champion 2yo Shanghai Bobby well beaten down the field.