EMERALD Beauty, Moon Dazzle and Royal Emblem will face the starter in Friday night’s US$150 000 Balanchine over 1777m on turf at Nad Al Sheba, reports MIKE DE KOCK from Dubai.

It’s a strong and competitive field, and the local racing scribes have written this week about several runners, including Majestic Desert, Ribella, Menhouba and Mansfield Park.

I believe, however, that Weichong Mawing’s mount Emerald Beauty will take a power of beating. She is in tip-top shape and has come on very well since her close third behind Ribella in the Cape Verdi.

Johnny Geroudis will partner our other filly Moon Dazzle, who finished just ahead of Emerald Beauty in the Cape Verdi and is bound to produce another strong finish. Our third entry, Royal Emblem, has been disappointing so far, but she’s probably better on turf and with a bit of luck may be able to earn a minor stake cheque.

Our other runner at this meeting is Becrux, who will race on sand over 1700m. He is a lot better than his disappointing performance on this surface a fortnight ago, and is sure to run a much better race. If he doesn’t, we’ll know he dislikes the sand and we’ll have to put him back on turf.

Becrux is a horse that shows tremendous work and I’ll be hoping that he can come to light for his owners.