StableTalk

Thanks for setting up the 2018 threads, Wiz.

Everyone is more than welcome to chip in with comments, critiques, carefully crafted cadence and considered controversial contrafibularities.

A couple of snippets to kick off the year - TOAST OF NEW YORK heads to the Pegasus after a sparkling gallop at Kempton on Tuesday evening. He's 33/1 to win the world's richest race but trainer Jamie Osborne rates him and he was only beaten a nose in the 2014 Breeders Cup Classic.

Slightly closer to home, the Dubai Carnival kicks off at Meydan tomorrow with the first turf races. ERTIJAAL, who was dominant over 1000m last winter, kicks off his 2018 campaign. He ended up running third in the Al Quoz Sprint over 1200m but over this shorter trip he's going to take all the beating.

The Group 3 Singspiel Stakes over 1800m sees the re-appearance of BENBATL, who was fifth in the English Derby and then won the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes over 2000m at Ascot before running fifth, albeit 12 lengths behind ENABLE in the King George.

The feature is the Group 2 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1 over 1600m. THUNDER SNOW is the class act here but faces NORTH AMERICA, who blitzed three handicaps over course and distance before flopping in the Godolphin Mile. HEAVY METAL won a Listed race before Christmas over course and distance and is obviously match fit.

Day One of the Meydan Carnival and to be honest everything went pretty much as expected. ERTIJAAL carried top weight to win the 1000m handicap though he was all out to beat the Irish raider HIT THE BID who has form on the Polytrack at Dundalk.

The Singspiel Stakes produced an impressive performance from BENBATL who looks to have plenty more to come in this campaign. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in one of the big races on finals night at the end of March.

The Group 2 Maktoum Challenge went to HEAVY METAL who showed the benefit of fitness when slamming THUNDER SNOW by four and a half lengths. I thought the second was running on strongly at the end and would be worth a step up to 1800 or possibly 2000m.

As it was my birthday, I had decided to go to Plumpton in East Sussex for an afternoon's jump racing. Journey time for me is over two hours - a tube and two trains. Fortunately, Plumpton has a railway station adjoining the course so get a train stopping at Plumpton (one an hour) and you can walk into the course in five minutes.

It was also free admission for Racegoers' Club members.

Overnight, rain had been forecast and we had plenty in London and the ground at Plumpton, which had been Soft, Good to Soft in places had by this morning gone Heavy. Soft in places.

The journey down towards the track was uneventful but when I reached Haywards Heath to change to catch the Eastbourne train which stopped at Plumpton I was told by another traveller there was an inspection at noon. The ground was heavy and it was still raining.

It's about 15 minutes from Haywards Heath to Plumpton with one stop between, Wivelsfield. As the guard came through he announced the racing might be off and it was confirmed by a man in the carriage who had spoken to a friend already at the track. I therefore got off at Wivelsfield and within five minutes was heading back to Haywards heath.

Four hours travelling and no racing.

I'm looking to go to Lingfield next Monday but suspect a wet week will take care of that meeting as well.

Picking up on a few bits and pieces.

Criquette Head-Maarek has retired after a long and successful career as a trainer. Her best horse was dual Arc winner TREVE.

TOAST OF NEW YORK has drawn gate 9 of 12 for Saturday's Pegasus Invitational at Gulfstream Park which carries a first prize of £5.2 million. He's 16/1 with GUN RUNNER a solid 8/11 favourite over here. The race is over 1800m and it's interesting to see support for SHARP AZTECA who was second in the Breeders Cup Dirt Mile before winning the Cigar Mile in early December by five lengths.
GUN RUNNER was dominant in the Breeders Cup Classic and if he can reproduce that form he'll probably win.

Today's Meydan card featured the Group 2 Cape Verdi Stakes and this produced a fine performance by PROMISING RUN who won by four and a half lengths. This was a fillies only race and the winner found this a lot easier than mixing it with the likes of DECORATED KNIGHT. The problem with the Carnival is there aren't a lot of fillies-only races but one horse being prepared for World Cup night is CRACKSMAN who will run in the Sheema Classic over 2400m. Trainer John Gosden reported ENABLE will head for the Juddmonte International before the Arc suggesting quite a curtailed season for last year's spectacular Arc winner.

Plenty of coverage over here of ARROGATE being named world champion of 2017 and most people not very impressed.

The ratings for the top races are also out and the best race of 2017 was the Arc followed by the King George (both won by ENABLE). Third was the Dubai World Cup and the fourth the Breeders Cup Classic. The top Australasian race was the George Ryder in fifth with the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in sixth. These are based on the annual race ratings calculated on the first four home. On that basis, I measured the Arc this year as 125.5 while the current figure is 126.5 so the race looks well up to historical standard.

GUN RUNNER showed why he is the best horse in America with an impressive win in the £5 million Pegasus Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Saturday. Always prominent in the 1800m event, he led going into the home turn and was always holding the challenge of WEST COAST who ran a fine race in second and reproduced the Breeders Cup Classic running to the ounce.

COLLECTED tried to go with GUN RUNNER down the back straight but the brutal early fractions did for him while SHARP AZTECA missed the break and never got into it and TOAST OF NEW YORK trailed home last having swallowed most of the back straight according to his trainer and coughing "like a 60-a-day man".

GUN RUNNER will presumably head for the Dubai World Cup and it may be WEST COAST will have another go at him there but I don't see why the Gulfstream result should be reversed over 200m further on a Dirt surface which really favours those up with the pace.

Meydan's Carnival continues on Thursday with two Group 2 races on the turf, the Al Fahidi over 1400m and the Al Rashidiya over 1800m. More on those in a couple of days.

Tomorrow's Meydan card features a couple of decent Group 2 events on the grass.

Seven go to post for the Al Rashadiya Stakes over 1800m. First place to start looks to be BENBATL who won a Group 3 nicely over course and distance three weeks ago and looks in good heart. He was fifth in the English Derby so he's a class act. He does face a very interesting rival in AL SAHEM who was a very good 3-y-o in South Africa last year. He won the South African Derby before running a close second in both the Daily News 2000 and the Durban July - the latter is one of the best known South African races.

As I have no collateral link between English and South African form I don't know where AL SAHEM sits in relation to BENBATL but the international ratings make them almost the same. I prefer BENBATL because he's had a run and will have the fitness edge but AL SAHEM is now with Mike de Kock and if he can bring out any improvement, he'll be a fascinating runner and I wonder if a British campaign beckons.

The Al Fahidi Fort Stakes is over 1400m and it's a closely matched field. D'BAI was a handicapper in England last summer but popped up to win a decent race three weeks ago. Whether he's Group 2 class yet I'm less certain. CHAMPIONSHIP won this last year and went on to take the Zabeel Mile but he's not run since and that's almost a year. We know he handles Meydan well but the absence is a concern. In both his wins last year, CHAMPIONSHIP beat NOAH FROM GOA and the latter was only third to D'BAI on his re-appearance.

I prefer JUNGLE CAT who is a specialist 1400m horse in England and although a shade disappointing in his last two efforts in Group 2 company at York and Goodwood but has a decent record fresh and might be the one.

Far be it from me to blow my own trumpet but that's two Group winners to kick off 2018.

BENBATL was no price (4/5) but he did it very well putting a modest field to the sword and winning by four lengths. I imagine they'll be looking at a race on the big Trials Saturday at the beginning of March and he stays 2000m on turf well. Whether he's a 2400m horse I'm less certain - he didn't quite get home in the English Derby but that was then and he's grown physically so who knows ?

The Group 2 Al Fahidi Fort went to JUNGLE CAT at the much more rewarding odds of 9/1. He was always close to the pace and just held off the late challenges of JANOOBI and DREAM CASTLE. He's a 1400m specialist and that limits his opportunities but this was a career best effort and this 6-y-o entire has probably done his stud value no harm with the win.

A quiet midwinter week up here was electrified by a huge media shock on Friday afternoon. For those of you not familiar with how racing media works up here, the very top races are shown free-to-air on the ITV commercial channel. Apart from that, if you want to watch live racing in your own home (as distinct from going to the track or to a betting shop) there are TWO specialist horse racing channels. At The Races (ATR) is part owned by Sky and the Arc Group of 16 racecourses and shows racing from the Arc Group tracks (including a lot of winter flat venues), a few independents and all racing from Ireland as well as a daily feed from South Africa. Overnight ATR shows top US racing until 2am when Australian racing takes over. You get this as part of a basic Sky package - there is no additional subscription or fee.

The competition is Racing UK (RUK) - this is run by the powerful Racecourse Management Group (RMG) which controls all the top British race tracks including Epsom, Newmarket and Goodwood. They also show Ascot which is independent and used to be on ATR. RUK also have a contract to show French racing.

Both ATR and RUK show the Dubai Carnival and both show the Breeders Cup with one taking the NBC feed and another a feed from ESPN. RUK costs £28 a month subscription but broadcasts in HD.

The big news yesterday was the announcement from Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) - the equivalent of the BHA in the UK (sorry for all the acronyms) - that it will transfer its media rights to RUK from January 1st 2019. The background is a new partnership between SIS (the provider of the pictures) and RMG which has caused a storm across the racing industry.

With the loss of Irish racing, ATR's model looks fragile though it does appear they are on the cusp of re-capturing Ascot and a couple of other English venues from RUK and will no doubt pitch to capture more courses. Many in Irish racing are unhappy - at present, Irish racing gets plenty of exposure from ATR and meetings like this weekend's Dublin Festival at Leopardstown get top billing on the channel. The fear is Irish racing will get inferior coverage on RUK where it will have to compete with British and French racing for attention. Undoubtedly, RMG made HRI an offer they couldn't refuse.

Not sure how this will turn out - some think this will lead to the inevitable merger of RUK and ATR which is possible. I suspect ATR will survive by regaining the valuable prize of Ascot, a couple of other tracks and maybe switching emphasis to French racing if they can grab it from RUK.

A fairly low-key card at Meydan tomorrow as the Carnival continues.

The 1800m Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 on the Dirt is the feature Group 2 race and it brings a rematch between HEAVY METAL and THUNDER SNOW who were first and second in Round 1 of this race along with third placed NORTH AMERICA. HEAVY METAL won by four and a half lengths and while I expect THUNDER SNOW to be closer I can't see him reversing places on the same terms.

There's also the UAE 1000 Guineas which is only a Listed race and features WINTER LIGHTNING and RAYYA who had a real fight in the trial and finished separated by a nose while ten ldngths clear of the others. Over the extra 200m RAYYA might reverse the places but it's very hard to know.

The Group 3 Dirt race over 1200m should go to COMICAS who looked good over course and distance three weeks ago and should confirm places with MUARRAB.