Dubai Racing Tips: Real World to prove the real deal on Super Saturday

• Mark Milligan takes aim at Super Saturday

• Real World the class act in Jebel Hatta

• Lost Eden a lively outsider earlier on the card

It's 'Super Saturday' at Meydan this week, where all but one race on the card is a trial for Dubai World Cup night, thought exactly how much impact these trials will have in three weeks' time is open to debate.

The advent of the Saudi Cup meeting the week before has certainly impacted the quality of Meydan's second biggest meeting of the year, and that is very much in evidence this week.

However, that's not to say that there aren't any interesting betting heats, with big fields and open races. There's just is a notable lack of quality in contests that used to attract top-class performers.

The 10f Group 1 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 (14:25) perfectly highlights the effect the Saudi Cup has had on this meeting.

With the two top rated horses on official figures having marks of just 111, this race must be clinging on to its Group 1 status by a thread.

Despite being the so-called highlight of the card, I filed this race in the 'too difficult' tray, with several of the more fancied runners having traded blows over the last few months.

Real World can take Jebel Hatta

The one race on the evening that should live up to its billing is the 9f Group 1 Jebel Hatta on the turf at 15:45.

Saeed bin Suroor's Real World is the class act in here and I was somewhat surprised to see him put in as big as 5/2, particularly as he found only the magnificent Baaeed too good in both the Lockinge and Queen Anne in a truncated UK campaign last season.

Real World won the Group 2 Zabeel Mile at the Dubai Carnival last year before connections tried him on dirt again in the Saudi Cup and Dubai World Cup, predictably making little impact given his turf pedigree.

We shouldn't hold those runs against him, though, as he's a top-class turf performer who is crucially is proven fresh, and that's an important point given he has to concede race fitness to his main rival.

Charlie Appleby's Master Of The Seas has clearly been difficult to train having made only two starts since October 2021, but they were both winning ones and he could well hold his own in the top Group 1s back in Europe if he can be kept in one piece.

Second to Poetic Flare in the 2021 renewal of the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, Master Of The Seas clearly has the ability to serve it up to Real World, though whether his overall form quite has the same substance remains to be seen.

Lost Eden worth an each-way wager

The opening thoroughbred race at 12:05 is the 12f Group 2 Dubai City Of Gold on the turf, and it's fair to say this is a Group 2 in name only, the majority of the runners around Listed class at best.

It looks a race to take a bit of a shot at with a long-priced runner and I'm hoping that Doug Watson's Lost Eden can outrun his odds.

A promising type when trained by Richard Hannon in the UK, he's really found his feet out in the UAE for top trainer Watson, and he completed a hat-trick of wins on the dirt at Jebel Ali last year, the latest in December.

Despite those three successes, I'm not convinced Lost Eden is a dirt horse and I suspect his overall class was simply carrying him through against lesser opposition.

It's also worth noting that Jebel Ali is a dirt course where turf-bred runners often perform well. By Sea The Stars out of a Dansili mare, nothing about that pedigree suggests dirt is what he wants and he's still unexposed on turf, having made just two starts on it for Hannon in 2021.

Lost Eden is simply a better horse nowadays than he was back then and I'd be very surprised if he isn't a mid-100s performer at least on turf, and possibly even better.

If he can run to that sort of level, he'll go very close to winning here, and that makes his current price of 25/1 extremely tempting from an each-way perspective, particularly with an extra place on offer on the Sportsbook.

The selection also has a perfect draw in stall 1, giving Pat Dobbs an excellent chance of saving ground before launching his bid.

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