TIMER PROBLEM NEEDS FIXING AT NAD AL SHEBA

After JAY PEG (39) had officially lowered the track record when winning the Dubai Duty Free last week trainer Herman Brown said “I didn’t think they’d run that fast.” In fact they hadn’t. There's been a problem with the times at Nad Al Sheba all season. And I estimate that Jay Peg actually ran about a second slower than the time he was officially credited with. This makes sense for a race in which he was gifted such a soft lead he was able to rally and regain it in a bunch finish.

Thankfully the Racing Post have put up their own estimates of the times for the big meeting. But it’s surely time the track themselves addressed the problem.

In any event I am rather dubious about the prospects of both Jay Peg and SUN CLASSIQUE (40) who took the other big Turf race on the Dubai World Cup card. I don’t think either race was up to international standard and believe that many of the best horses in both events ran below form for one reason or another.

CURLIN STRUTS HIS STUFF

I don’t have anything new to say about CURLIN (45). But I must mention that he ran stupendously fast when taking the Dubai World Cup last week. Clearly he is one of the best dirt runners we have seen in quite some time. I will be very wary of betting against him in future.

That said I suspect Frankie Dettori was right to say that next year Godolphin’s JALIL (33) will have a much better chance. He earned a huge speed rating of 43 from me on his previous start but wasn’t really targeted at the big race until he’d run three seriously fast races in a short space of time at the Dubai Carnival. Next year I imagine he’ll have just the one prep in the final leg of the Maktoum Challenge and will come into the Dubai Cup a much fresher horse as a result. Right now he’s my long range pick for the 2009 race. And before then he looks a very interesting prospect for the Breeders‘ Cup Classic.