Dubai Carnival: Angus McNae's tips for week one at Meydan

The Dubai World Cup Carnival at magnificent Meydan where the Dirt meets the Turf begins on Friday and you will not miss a thing with us here on Racing TV. I will be analysing all of the action from the studio and providing selections every week.

The action gets under way with two feature races. The Al Maktoum Challenge on the Dirt and the Cape Verdi on the Turf. Both races have attracted plenty of runners and the whole card is of the highest quality with some decent international challengers adding spice to the meeting.

I have four selections this week. All the best.

2.35 Meydan: Taking Names

Despite a dull effort last time, I think this Doug Watson-trained colt can bounce back to the sort of form that saw him when his maiden impressively here last November.

In that race he travelled powerfully and thrashed Summer is Tomorrow, who went on to win a maiden by 4½ lengths next time.

While Taking Names didn't fire last time, he was slowly away and had to take a lot of kickback. He merely plugged on in that race and it’s possible that he recoiled a bit from his big first-time up effort.

Pat Dobbs will be keen to get him to break better this time and make full use of his inside draw in stall 1. The rail on the dirt at the domestic fixtures we have seen so far has been good and he can ride it to success here.

3.10 Meydan: Wirko

You won't go far wrong if you follow Charlie Appleby and William Buick on the turf at Meydan and this lightly-raced individual looks the ideal type to thrive under these conditions.

Wirko has only had four career starts, winning two of them and achieving his win in the Listed Blue Riband trial at Epsom in a fast time despite inexperience. Compared to most of his rivals here, he is relatively unexposed and open to improvement.

Wirko has been off the track since running poorly in the Chester Vase in May where the prevailing soft ground may have been against him. The beautiful turf carpet at Meydan will definitely suit and it looks like he has been saved for a big tilt at this year's carnival.

William Buick will have to negate the disadvantage of stall 10, but apart from that I can see very few negatives.

4.20 Meydan: Midnight Sands

Midnight Sands is a Meydan specialist with six wins from his nine starts here on the dirt track. This one-turn mile suits him ideally and he has had a recent run to blow the cobwebs away.

On the face of it Midnight Sands was a little disappointing on his return to action, but he endured a bad trip out wide and was not persevered with when beaten. That run should see him spot on for this and he may be sharper than a few of his rivals here who have Saudi Arabia on their radar.

Midnight Sands is highly thought of, as evidenced by the fact that he went off favourite for the Godolphin Mile on World Cup night last year, and Pat Dobbs has chosen him rather than the useful Golden Goal.

This is a deep dirt race and with a lot of pace will prove attritional, but that set-up will suit Midnight Sands who already boasts a Grade 3 win here.

4.55 Meydan: Wedding Dance

Charlie Appleby has won this race for the last three years and can land it again with this progressive filly.

Wedding Dance will need to step forward from her cosy Wolverhampton success last time, but she won that race in a very good time and it has always been a maxim of mine when assessing racehorses to ask not what they beat but how fast did they run.

Wedding Dance was very strong in the closing stages of that race and stepping up to a mile here can only be a plus given her stamina-laden pedigree. She is well-berthed in stall 1 for a ground saving trip and I expect William Buick to angle her out in the home straight and allow her to finish strongly.

This fillies' contest is never very strong and she looks a standout against this opposition.