Satish Seemar, the Zabeel Stables trainer, will unveil his exciting summer acquisition Gladiator King in the Dubai World Cup Carnival’s opening meeting at the Meydan racecourse on Thursday.
The three-year-old son of the 2008 Dubai World Cup winner Curlin is a $195,000 (Dh716,000) purchase of Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid and arrived from the USA with five wins under his belt, including the Group Three Hutcheson Stakes.
Gladiator King will make his local debut in the featured Group Three Dubawi Stakes run over the 1,200-metre distance and Seemar believes “he’s coming on well and he’s ready to run his race.”
“Luckily we got him at the right time in the summer and he’s acclimatised well,” the Zabeel trainer said.
“The American horses take a while to come along and he’s enjoyed our programme. We’re pleased with him because he was actually stuck in quarantine a bit too long, but once he got to Zabeel, he started to get better.
“He’s been working with some of our better sprinters, like Lavaspin (Seemar’s other entry in the race) and should only improve from this first race.”
Lavaspin has won four of his eight starts and will be ridden by stable jockey Richard Mullen while Godolphin’s France based rider Mickael Barzalona is atop Gladiator King.
“Lavaspin has had his issues, but is doing well. So it will be interesting to run them both, as (Lavaspin) is a Zabeel-made product and the other is brand new,” Seemar added.
“Gladiator King is my first horse for Sheikh Rashid. I got to meet him at the last Dubai World Cup day and it went from there.
“Owners like him are really needed in this business. He’s keen, young, intelligent and mature. He really wants to be involved in racing and I hope we can win some races together.”
Zabeel won the Dubawi Stakes with Raven’s Corner last year and have taken home the trophy in four of their six runnings, including three with Reynaldothewizard.
Gladiator King’s rivals include multiple Group Three winner Drafted (second last year), Garhoud Sprint (Listed) winner Ibn Malik, Waady, Alfredo Arcano and Nine Below Zero.
Godolphin, meanwhile, launch their Dubai World Cup Carnival drive on Thursday at the Meydan racecourse with 14 horses entered across four races in the first of the 10 meetings that culminates with the Dubai World Cup on March 28.
The royal blues kick off their campaign in the six-race card with four runners in the UAE 1000 Guineas Trial.
Saeed bin Suroor, who has won the UAE 1000 Guineas a record 10 times – nine for Godolphin and one in the silks of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid – has three runners in Final Song, Good Reason and Dubai Love.
The fourth Godolphin entry is Silent Wave trained by Charlie Appleby, who has yet to win the UAE classic for the three-year-old fillies.
Of Bin Suroor’s trio, Final Song appears to be the one to watch out for.
Christophe Soumillon rides the Dark Angel filly who made a winning debut and was placed third twice in a couple of Group Twos.
Godolphin has a trio in the third race, a dirt handicap for horses rated 90-plus. They are double handed in the Meydan Challenge, a Listed handicap, the fourth race and have five entries in the concluding Dubai Racing Club, a Listed Turf Handicap on turf.
