Behind the stable door: Time for the big names to deliver

As Thin Lizzy would say, ‘The Boys Are Back in Town' and this week sees the first of 10 exceptionally competitive Carnival meetings from Meydan.

The best jockeys, trainers and most of all, horses all return to the UAE each hoping they will be lucky enough to take home some of the generous purses Dubai has to offer.

Gloria De Campeao started the ball rolling in 2010 by securing the first leg of the Al Maktoum Challenge and went on to claim the biggest prize of them all in the Dubai World Cup the following March. Strangely enough on that night last year, I did think I'd seen a World Cup night winner, but was far more certain it would be No Risk Al Maury in the Kahayla Classic rather than Gloria in the big one itself. Unsurprisingly, I was wrong on both counts!

Thursday evening's card looks fascinating and it will be interesting to see how My Indy performs having previously been a good yardstick for Godolphin but now competes for the Mubarak Bin Shafya team.

Dandy Boy will be representing Ireland (albeit owned by an Emirati!) and he arrived in Dubai on Saturday and looks an interesting runner on Thursday night's card. David Marnane, a former assistant to Dubai World Cup-winning handler Kieran McLaughlin, feels his charge will perform better running quite quickly after landing, and being a horse that possesses a fair amount of class, as his beating of Mabait (another carnival hopeful) in the Victoria Cup at Ascot will testify, he could be one to keep an eye on.

I also have a funny feeling that Superstition might be worth a look when he runs.

Stef Higgins, who is officially the trainer, but might as well add stable hand, groom, work rider and secretary to her impressive list of talents, has sent over her stable star Mac Love.

And having been updated with her tweets on twitter (I know what you're thinking, but I tell you what, once you've tweeted, you become a fully-fledged twit!) the hands on handler flew to Dubai on Saturday and was just pleased to not be riding out with her scarf and coat in minus 20 degree temperatures, although she did complain of having trouble finding her way back to the International barn after an afternoon at the beach on Monday!

Ten to follow

The ‘Carnival Race to the Dubai World Cup' Ten to Follow competition is up and running and remains open to entrants until 6pm Thursday evening. It's free to enter and has very kindly been sponsored by Al Basti Equiworld who has put up five Dubai World Cup tickets for the lucky winner. Just for fun, it will be interesting to see who really knows their stuff.

Entry forms and details are on facebook.com/dubairacingchannel and you can email your top ten to thewinningline@dmi.ae.

So there you have it, a gigantic feast of the best racing you could possibly ask for and that's before we even mention the King George on Saturday-Enjoy!