Racing's bi-annual 'changing of the guard' takes place next week. Out go the likes of Martin Pipe and Tony McCoy as jump racing fades from the headlines after Cheltenham, with just brief interruptions such as the Grand National and Whitbread before next autumn.
In come Saeed bin Suroor and Frankie Dettori as the arrival of spring is heralded with a big-race double-header on the Flat from Dubai and Doncaster next Saturday.
Dettori will be in the United Arab Emirates for the fifth running of the Dubai World Cup, which has quickly become a major date in the sport's calendar.
Runners from Australia, Japan, Europe and the USA have been attracted to Nad Al Sheba for the world's richest race, which has been won by undisputed champions Cigar and Singspiel in the past.
But Dettori looks set to see off all-comers on the aptly-named Dubai Millennium, trained at nearby Al Quoz by bin Suroor.
His mount proved himself a tip-top miler with wins in the Prix Jacques Le Marois and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes last year, when he also won the Prix Eugene Adam over this 10-furlong trip.
And he proved himself on dirt with a track-record-breaking warm-up win at Nad Al Sheba early this month, when he became the first horse to break two minutes for the mile-and-a-quarter course.
Dettori will also be very hopeful of victory on High-Rise in the Dubai Sheema Classic, after the five-year-old gained his first win since the 1998 Vodafone Derby recently.
One of the rider's former colleagues at Luca Cumani's yard has a fine chance of lifting the first big race of the British Flat turf season the same day.
Jimmy Fortune is now stable-jockey to Paul Cole and has the mount on the trainer's John Ferneley in the Worthington Lincoln Handicap at Doncaster.
That's a ride to look forward to as the horse was a highly encouraging close third in the Lincoln Trial at Wolverhampton last weekend, staying on strongly on a tight track which did not suit him.
He will be seen to much better advantage over the straight mile of the Lincoln, which Cole won three years ago with Kuala Lipis - who warmed up by finishing fourth at Wolverhampton.
'We would rather him have won but at least he won't have to carry a penalty at Doncaster,' Cole said.
'The race has been the target since the beginning of the winter and Jimmy Fortune will ride. Good ground would be all right but he probably wouldn't run if it was firm.'
John Ferneley is 2lb better off with ante-post favourite Tayseer, who beat him narrowly at Newmarket last October, and must go very well.
Last year's winner Right Wing will be back, bidding to become the first horse to gain a repeat victory in the first leg of the 'spring double' since Babur in 1958.
And Bomb Alaska, who took the consolation Spring Mile 12 months ago, should not be discounted despite a hefty rise in the handicap.
But those looking for a long-priced fancy in a race renowned for its unpredictability could do a lot worse then consider an interest The Whistling Teal.
He belied his inexperience with a series of good efforts in tough handicaps last season.
The colt was a short-head second in the Mail On Sunday Final at Ascot - significantly his only race over a straight mile course.
And he ran a blinder from a modest draw when eighth in the Cambridgeshire at Newmarket, the first three-year-old home in a field of 36.
The Whistling Teal lost all chance when slowly out of the stalls behind John Ferneley at Wolverhampton last Saturday, yet the way he stayed on again in the home straight suggested he has found his form quickly in 2000.
A sluggish start will be much easier to overcome on Doncaster's stiff mile course.
The Whistling Teal will be a cracking each-way bet if he makes the line-up. He needs 12 runners withdrawn above him to make the cut - otherwise ante-post bets will be refunded and he must go close in Friday's Spring Mile.
