Seemar wants more

Ahead of this year’s Dubai World Cup meeting, Sally Ann Grassick chats with the successful and ambitious Dubai-based trainer Satish Seemar

Zabeel Racing Stables

DUBAI HAS BEEN SEEN as a land of opportunity by racehorse trainers and many names have come and gone since racing first started to develop on a bigger scale in the emirate 30 years ago.

One trainer who has there from the outset, has stood the test of time in the desert, and positively flourished is Satish Seemar.

The Indian native was headhunted by Sheikh Mohammed in 1990 to assist with the creation and development of the now world-famous Zabeel Racing Stables. An oasis of equine paradise surrounded by towering skyscrapers, Zabeel sits on 200 acres in the centre of the Dubai metropolis and is now home to around 135 horses.

Seemar left India in 1984 in search of an education and recognised qualification with horses, which he eventually found in California. His studies led to an opportunity to work with the world-renowned “horse whisperer” Monty Roberts and from there to a role as farm manager for Taylor Made Farms in Lexington, Kentucky.

Three years later, Seemar made the life-changing decision to accept Sheikh Mohammed’s request for help to make Dubai into the next major racing destination.

“I am proud to say I have 37 horses by Dubawi in my stable, so that will give you some idea of the standard of horses available for purchase to us now!

This was not a role that Seemar undertook lightly and he took trips around top-class training and racing facilities the world over in order to draw inspiration to aid the construction process in Dubai.

“Right from the very beginning, Sheikh Mohammed had a vision for what Dubai was going to be racing wise,” explains Seemar.

“When His Highness shared his ambitions and advice with me, I took it very seriously. Racing in Dubai would never have existed without the initial investment from the Maktoum family, but the Sheikh always maintained that eventually this would be a nation of private racehorse owners.

North American

“I am proud to say that now 99 per cent of the horses in my care are privately owned by people from all walks of life – from the gentleman who has a dental practice here, English and Scottish people working in construction and oil, Indians, Pakistanis and some new owners who have recently arrived from Libya.

“Between my owners and my staff it is like the United Nations here at Zabeel!

“I have to say that I am loving it; it is so nice to have owners who are so keen and interested.

“However, this is all new to me so my stable has been in a sort of transition period for the last few years.

“Private owners are also beneficial for the economy here in Dubai on a level that supersedes racing: from the airline they use to fly here and then the taxi driver who drives them to the hotels where they stay and the restaurants where they eat. It is one consistent chain that is all Dubai.

“They get the whole experience when coming to Meydan for the racing and then going out for a nice dinner afterwards; no matter whether the result was good or bad! “The industry here is utterly unique, you cannot compare racing in Dubai to anywhere else in the world. Each area has their own club, but the whole system in the UAE falls under one organisation in the ERA [Emirates Racing Authority] so it is very fair to everyone involved.”

With the time spent in Dubai under his belt, Seemar can reflect on how the logistics of the industry has changed, developed and improved as it has grown.

“A lot of people have little or no idea of how racing actually works out here and how much it has evolved in recent years,” he says.

“We started off in the early days with lowly rated horses, but with each passing year the quality of our horses improves,” he says, going onto explain how the trainers have had to become more self-sufficient in recent years.

“Previously the Godolphin horses would arrive and be distributed amongst the trainers. That was, of course, very nice for us because it made our lives as trainers very easy, but it also made us quite lazy because we didn’t have to work to get new horses.

“I was always quietly against that practice but then, a few years ago, His Highness suddenly announced a change to the previous policy. He decided that all those horses would be sold at auction to private owners instead of to the royal family.

“The rules state that the horses must remain in Dubai for that season to prevent people coming here to buy all our horses and then taking them out of the country.

“After a season you can sell the horse on or race it elsewhere, that is your choice. This new policy has raised the standard of racing here so much and has been one of the best things to happen in recent years for racing in Dubai.” I T IS A POLICY that Seemar has benefited from himself.

“I have bought horses, such as North America, from that sale who have gone on to win Group 1 races l, and others who have won stakes races at every level,” he says.

“Of course, these horses used to belong to Sheikh Mohammed and they were bred by him so you can’t go wrong with their pedigrees. I am proud to say I have 37 horses by Dubawi in my stable, so that will give you some idea of the standard of horses available for purchase to us now!

“This year I have about a dozen Carnival horses (rated 90 or over) and next year I hope to have at least double that. If I have 25 Carnival horses next season, then I will be a force to be reckoned with.”

Dubai is obviously famed for its mild winters, which sees many trainers based in colder climes send their charges there for their racing season, but also for its searing hot summers.

This year the Dubai World Cup Carnival began on January 2 and runs through to March 7, with Dubai World Cup night always falling on the final Saturday of March.

The population of the horses is important as you can’t just decide to extend the season and then only have four-runner races. This season was the first time that we started

Due to the extremes in weather, the UAE racing season traditionally began in early November and went through to the end of March, which provided limited opportunities for trainers to run their charges, particularly if a horse picked up an injury at an inopportune moment of the season.

“It may be a short season here, but it is ultra-competitive with the best pedigrees in the world and the highest standards of racing.

“As trainers we have aggressively been campaigning our racing clubs here for a longer racing season, but, of course, they have their own reasons, too. racing at Meydan as early as October 24 and finish as late as April 10.

“That is a good sign, but I’m in favour of extending it further to include all of October and April, maybe even into early May.”

Satish Seemar

The ambitious Seemar would also like to see further tweaking of the programme book to reflect the type of horse that he and many of his fellow trainers are now buying.

“We would also like more Turf racing here as most of our horses are from Europe and the horses we can now purchase from the new sales here have mostly Turf pedigrees.

“That is something I would like to see improved here, and not just for the Carnival as there are very few opportunities to run lower-rated horses on Turf here.

One of my plans for the near future is to improve the standard of my Turf horses so that we have the option to race in Europe

“The US is a good source of Dirt pedigrees for our racing here, but it is a long way to travel horses and they take longer to acclimatise when they get here compared to horses sourced in Europe.

“Currently 99.9 per cent of thoroughbred racing takes place at Meydan and Jebel Ali so it would also boost the opportunities enormously if we added more thoroughbred races to tracks such as Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Al Ain, which currently only have one such race per meeting.”

Seemar became the first UAE-based trainer to win a race in Europe with the success of Dayflower in the Group 2 Middleton Stakes at York in 1993, but his overseas raids have dwindled since.

“In the past I have successfully travelled horses abroad, to places such as Japan, the UK and France, in search of opportunities at other times of the year but not recently.

“However, now that we have new owners in the yard, I plan to do that again in the coming years, depending on individual owners and their ambitions.

“Trips to Royal Ascot and other prestigious meetings are most definitely on the cards in the near future for our team. One of the consequences of having a short racing season is that you always have one eye on the future.

“I am already planning for next season and thinking about what pedigrees I will need to source at the sales to make us competitive.

“One of my plans for the near future is to improve the standard of my Turf horses so that we have the option to race in Europe after the end of the Dubai racing season.”

Using the cryotherapy unit at Zabeel Stables

The string at Zabeel

Bought from the Dubai Sale in 2015, having failed to win a single race for Godolphin, North America has been a flagbearer for Zabeel Stables in recent years.

At eight years of age, the son of Dubawi has now won seven starts for Seemar, including all three rounds of the Al Maktoum Challenge over two separate seasons.

He finished third in a Group 2 on his return this season, despite taking a false step on the rain loosened Dirt surface, and looks to have lost none of his talent with age.

“I am very proud of our older horses such as North America, who is due to contest the Dubai World Cup for a third time this year, and the now-retired Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen winner Reynaldothewizard.

“They have been excellent advertisements for our stable, but it is the young horses who really excite me as they are the future. We have some nice three-year-olds currently including Commanding who is very talented and looks to be one to watch.”

With Satish Seemar at the helm hungry for more top level success, Zabeel Racing Stables looks to be a yard with a bright future, even after nearly 30 years already in existence.