Only 7 weeks to go until the big night and while the Japanese haven't yet arrived there are a lot of horses to consider for some of the races on that night.

The Al Shingagha is G3 and a sprint over 1200m on the dirt thus a prep for the Golden Shaheen.  Newcomer Isolate is at 3/1 in the UK but he's been off for a while so we prefer Mubakker on 7/2, a stablemate, and the Michael Costa trained Mouhaab with Jean van Overmeire on 9/2 has to be very good value.

The G2 Singspiel is over 1800m on the turf and it is hard to go past the Appleby pair of Valiant Prince 2/1 and Ottoman Fleet, 1st and 3rd in the Al Rashidya.  Valiant Prince has picked up a penalty for that run which may bring them closer together we are keeping them in that order with Dubai Future from the other Godolphin yard on 3/1.  We have a bit of a roughie here in Dave O'Meara's Shelir who was second in the Zabeel Mile and the step up in trip should not be a problem.  Dan Tudhope has the ride and the quote is 12/1.

The G2 Cape Verdi has four Godolphin f&ms competing over the 1600m.  The Godolphin runners are split between the two trainers with Appleby saddling With the Moonlight 13/8 Buick riding and Wild Beauty with James Doyle on board at 4/1.  Bin Suroor saddles Soft Whisper 3/1 Dan Tudhope riding and White Moonlight 5/1 and Adrie de Vries in the irons.

The biggest one of the night is the Second Round of the Al Maktoum Challenge – G2 and we see the Round 1 winner Algiers for the Crisfords and James Doyle on 3/2.  Since he won the first round by 6.5 lengths the price is warranted.  There are three horses who have G1wins in their CVs – Salute the Soldier who won this in 2021 for Fawzi Naas and Adrie de Vries – he's on 3/1 – and First Constitution and Atletico El Culano further down the market but this after all a prep for the DWC itself.  Remorse is on 7/2 and worthy of consideration.