The weights are headed by Balefire , to be ridden by Royston Ffrench for Salem bin Ghadayer and will be having his fifth start for new connections. A 7yo gelded son of Shamardal, he has yet to add to his two wins in Ireland for Godolphin and Mick Halford but has clearly not been easy to train; his local debut was after a 468-day break, his seasonal return this season after 335 days off.
Both his wins in Ireland were om turf and this will be his first outing locally on grass which appears very much in his favour. With the yard in decent form it would be no surprise to see him bounce back.
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Michael Costa has made a bright start as retained trainer at the Jebel Ali Stables of Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and saddles his main patron's Baalbek, the mount of stable jockey Jean Van Overmeire.
A homebred 7yo Elusive Quality gelding, he arrives here a maiden after 10 starts but was third over this course and distance on his most recent of two visits to Abu Dhabi, in June 2021 and should be spot on for this after two dirt outings at the very beginning of the season.
Lake Causeway, Tadhg O'Shea riding for Bhupat Seemar, will be looking to lose his maiden tag at the 20th attempt having finished runner-up on seven occasions. The 6yo gelding was not beaten far when fourth in the 2020 Group 3 UAE 2000 Guineas on dirt at Meydan.
His three previous Abu Dhabi appearances have produced a second, over this 1400m and two third place finishes, one over this track and trip. This looks a good opportunity to finally get his head in front.
Doug Watson saddles three, Shadwell's Fawaareq, to be ridden by the owner's retained rider, Dane O'Neill with stable jockey Pat Dobbs aboard Al Meqdam and Sam Hitchcott partnering Royal Sands. A case can be made for all three.
The best of the Purebred Arabian action is a decent quality 1200m handicap in which the classy Gold Silver will attempt to concede weight to all his eight rivals.
Trained by Ibrahim Aseel for Ziad Galadari, the 7yo entire has five career victories to his name, including over this 1200m course and distance and should be thereabouts under the ever-dependable Adrie de Vries.
It looks wide open though and O'Neill rides Shadwell's Muneer for John Hyde, a homebred 5yo mare looking to bounce back to winning ways having tasted defeat for the first time on her local debut, over 1600m here in the capital.
She won both her UK outings, including her one attempt over 1200m, in a decent conditions contest on turf at Newbury.
Representing Khalid Khalifa Al Nabooda, Ernst Oertel and Tadhg O'Shea, AF Majalis has to be feared, along with Bshara, to be saddled by Salem Al Ketbi with Richard Mullen in the saddle.
