As one of the longest serving trainers and one who has saddled the most number of winners in the UAE, Satish Seemar will be conspicuous by his absence at Meydan’s second meeting on Thursday.
The Zabeel Stables boss has had his licence suspended after being placed on a US sanctions list "due to one of my former clients being included on the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control list".
The six-time UAE champion trainer’s 12 runners at Dubai’s flagship racecourse will now run under his assistant Bhupat Seemar.
Seemar revealed the suspension relates to his training of North America, a Group 1 winner at Meydan.
"I have been informed by the Emirates Racing Authority that it is temporarily suspending my licence, with immediate effect,” Seemar said in a statement issued to racingpost.com.
“This is due to one of my former clients being included on the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control list. The horse in question, North America, is no longer in training at Zabeel Stables and has been exported from the UAE.
“My case has been submitted to lawyers in Washington DC and I'm confident my name will be removed from the list in the near future.
“Bhupat will hold the licence until further notice and he and the excellent team at Zabeel Stables will endeavour to uphold the high standards we have maintained throughout the past 30 years.”
It provides Seemar’s long-time assistant Bhupat with an opportunity to have his first winner as a trainer.
Bhupat has three unraced two year old runners in the second race, with Summer Of Tomorrow as the choice of stable jockey Tadhg O’Shea.
Kafoo, a three year old colt who is also unraced, runs in the next, but his best chance appears to be with Zero To A Hundred in the penultimate race.
The Dubawi gelding broke his maiden tag over the mile trip at Meydan two weeks ago and steps up on distance on his handicap debut.
He was either second or third in six of his seven starts last season and showed much improvement on his reappearance when coming home comfortably for his first career prize.
Meanwhile, Bahraini trainer Fawzi Nass arrives with his first Purebred Arabian, and a classy one at that, as RB Rich Lyke Me goes in the Group 2 Baniyas.
American-bred RB Rich Lyke Me is a winner of seven races, including four Grade 3 prizes, and has only been out of the top three once in his 16 career starts.
The five year old son of Majd Al Arab has run all his races in the United States and will be an interesting entry on his first start for the new connections in the opening race on a card comprising six races for the thoroughbreds and one for the Arabians.
RB Rich Lyke Me is the highest rated in the nine-runner field and challenging him will be Ernst Oertel’s pair AF Al Sajanjle and RB Blying, Majed Al Jahouri’s Jawaal and Omani raider RB Kinsman.
Race card:
7pm: Baniyas – Group 2 (PA) Dh97,500 (Dirt) 1,400m
7.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (D) 1,200m
8pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (D) 1,600m
8.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 1,400m
9pm: Rated Conditions (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 1,400m
9.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 2,000m
10pm: Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (D) 1,200m
