A REMINDER that flat racing “proper”, and hopefully some better weather, is around the corner came with the staging of the Lincoln Trial at Wolverhampton last Saturday.

The winner, Zwayyan, is likely to go to Doncaster with a decent chance for he has lots of form on turf, including over a straight mile, though this ended up a messy contest and his timefigure comes out at just 95.

A similar remark applies to the listed Lady Wulfruna Stakes at the same course, won by Above The Rest with a 101 timefigure.

Winter weather is not an issue over in Dubai, where “Super Saturday” at Meydan featured two Group 1s, a Group 2 and three Group 3s.

The win of Dream Castle in the Group 1 Jebel Hatta on turf has a solid look to it, backed up by a 121 timefigure, but Group 1 Round 3 of the Al Maktoum Challenge on dirt is more of a headscratcher. On the face of it, Capezzano’s defeat of Thunder Snow by nine and a half lengths looks mighty good, but the runner-up shaped as if very much in need of the race and the overall time was oddly slow (110 timefigure).

Capezzano himself is trained by one just back from a drug suspension and either finishes nowhere or wins. I would like to see this win repeated in more credible circumstances.

There were good successes, if not necessarily good times, from Divine Image (109) in a listed race, Blue Point (106) in a Group 3 in which fourth-placed Riflescope finished a bit too close for comfort and Old Persian (83) in a slowly-run Group 2 in which he did well to overcome trouble in running.

Fastest time of all came from Muntazah in a Group 3 at a mile on dirt, the six-year-old gelding storming clear to win by 10 lengths with an apparent 127 performance.