Meydan: Safety Check could be dangerous in Al Fahidi Fort

The Group 2, $250,000 Al Fahidi Fort headlines a seven-race all-Thoroughbred card on Thursday night at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai. The nine-horse field includes Safety Check, the estimable Godolphin 5-year-old who struggled two winters ago in Dubai but went 3 for 3 on the Meydan turf course last year, including a win in the Al Fahidi Fort, a one-turn turf race of 1,400 meters (about seven furlongs).

Trained by Charlie Appleby and with William Buick named to ride, Safety Check, by Dubawi, was last seen finishing 10^th on Sept. 12 at Doncaster, but Appleby said soft turf worked against Safety Check, who previously had finished a fine third in the Group 2 Lennox Stakes at Goodwood. Good ground Thursday night will better suit Safety Check, whom Appleby said prefers racing around a turn to straight-course races like his last start at Doncaster.

Eastern Rules was second in a Jan. 7 course and distance handicap and finished second in the 2014 Al Fahidi Fort, but the gelding is 8 now, and struggled to produce anything close to his best form until his most recent start. He was beaten there by Ghaamer, a 6-year-old who has been racing in Dubai for more than three years but has only recently hit peak form for trainer Ali Al Raihe, who won three other races on the Jan. 7 program.

Trainer Mike De Kock sends out four of the race’s nine runners: Royal Ridge, Mastermind, Tellina, and Anaerobio. Tellina, a South African 6-year-old gelding making his Dubai debut, raced in Group 1 company in his most recent trip to the post, and at 112 has the highest official rating among the quartet, but Anaerobio is a horse to consider betting. The 8-year-old won the Al Fahidi Fort in 2014 and had a useful comeback fourth behind Ghaamer and Eastern Rules two weeks ago, and picks up the riding services Thursday of Christophe Soumillon.

The Al Fahidi Fort goes at 11:45 a.m. Eastern as the fourth race, and is supported by several rich handicap races. Race 2 is a five-furlong turf sprint in which the de Kock-trained Banadeer looks likely to improve in his second run of the Dubai World Cup Carnival. The 4-year-old Banadeer finished 10^th two weeks ago behind sharp front-runner Ertijaal, but also was 10^th in his first start of the 2014 Carnival before improving to finish third in a race won by Caspian Prince, who is one of his rivals Thursday.

Race 3, carded for about 1 3/16 miles on dirt, drew a short field of six older horses, including the imposing Godolphin duo of Footbridge and Let’s Go. American expatriate Footbridge made his Dubai debut last February, finished fourth under conditions similar to Thursday’s race, and hasn’t started since. Let’s Go makes his dirt debut and is a listed stakes winner over the Lingfield all-weather track in England.

Race 7, a $150,000 handicap carded at about 1 1/2 miles on turf, might be the best betting race on the card, with an overflow field of 18 entered. Halfguinea owns the race’s highest official rating, but he is totally unproven beyond about 1 1/4 miles.