Mike De Kock had two winners here last week and Merhee will be better for his run over 7f on Turf a fortnight ago where he led for most of the way. Sholaan's best form has been at Jebel Ali, where he won in November, while Figure Of Speech finished a long way behind on his reappearance and hasn't progressed from his excellent juvenile form. Genius Step has won three of his last four but in the other was three lengths behind TOUCH GOLD, who completed a hat-trick in the spring. He shot up the ratings as a consequence and made his reappearance in a very much better race than this last week where he wasn't disgraced. Scandanavian runners have a very poor record here so Over The Ocean, Beat Baby and Sir Freddie are overlooked for that reason but Robert Cowell's Speed Hawk will be all the better for his run behind Hototo two weeks ago and, if handling the surface, could prove a major threat. Mashaaref had a run round in a Group 2 a couple of weeks ago and will find this less demanding.
Mashaaref (9-0) 9th of 15, 12l behind Surfer (9-0) at Meydan(UAE) 1m Group 2 sks (1).
Over The Ocean (USA) (9-4) 5th of 11, 3 1/2l behind Ragazzo (9-0) at Taby(SWE) 6f lst stk (1) gd in Sep.
Beat Baby (IRE) (9-4) 3rd of 11, 1 1/2l behind Ragazzo (9-0) at Taby(SWE) 6f lst stk (1) gd in Sep.
Sholaan (IRE) (9-5) 4th of 6, 1 1/4l behind Al Razi (8-6) at Jebel Ali(UAE) 6f 3yo stks.
Speed Hawk (USA) 9-2 (8-13) 8th of 10, 5l behind Hototo (9-2) at Meydan(UAE) 5f hcp gd.
Merhee (AUS) 7-1 (9-2) 7th of 13, 5l behind Safety Check (8-11) at Meydan(UAE) 7f hcp gd.
Figure Of Speech (IRE) 12-1 (9-4) 13th of 14, 31l behind Faulkner (8-13) at Meydan(UAE) 7f hcp.
Price Is Truth (USA) 7-1 (9-0) last of 14, 39l behind Faulkner (8-13) at Meydan(UAE) 7f hcp.
Touch Gold (IRE) (9-0) 6th of 9, 11l behind Reynaldothewizard (9-0) at Meydan(UAE) 6f 3yo Listed stks.
Genius Step (IRE) 11-8fav (9-1) won at Meydan(UAE) 6f hcp in Nov beating The Taj (9-1) by 1 1/4l, 8 ran.
