UAE Derby (G2) runner-up Summer Is Tomorrow boasts an international resume: he was bred in Kentucky by Brereton C. Jones, sold through France's Arqana Breeze-Up sale to Irish owners, and is trained in the UAE by Bhupat Seemar.
The 3-year-old son of Summer Front will come full circle with a return to Kentucky for the Run for the Roses, the first Kentucky Derby experience for both his trainer and his owners, according to Thoroughbred Racing Commentary.
Seemar, the 45-year-old nephew of six-time UAE champion trainer Satish Seemar, took over his uncle's Zabeel Stable in November after the elder was suspended by the United Arab Emirates over alleged involvement with human rights abuse.
(Read more about Satish Seemar's suspension here.)
Bhupat Seemar, a former five-year employee of Bob Baffert, has had a big first season with 47 wins including a first Grade 1 with Switzerland on Dubai World Cup night in the Golden Shaheen. One race earlier that evening, Summer Is Tomorrow earned 40 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby via his runner-up effort in the UAE Derby, especially impressive considering the colt had never raced beyond seven furlongs.
Summer Is Tomorrow will ship to the United States on Wednesday, April 20, be quarantined for three days in Chicago, and then van down to Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., where he will be overseen by Seemar's wife Caroline. The young trainer is excited for the trip, but he remains realistic about the challenge facing the frontrunning colt.
“There's going to be a lot of speed – we just want a track that's got no surprises,” Seemar told TRC. “We don't want to go all that way and get a sloppy track. We'll do what the Americans do and have plenty of paddock and gate schooling beforehand.”
Meanwhile, owners Michael and Negar Burke are thrilled with the opportunity to race beneath the Twin Spires. They plan to attend the race, provided approval from the immigration office for the Iranian-born Negar Burke.
A late ($6,000) nominee to the Triple Crown, Summer Is Tomorrow is one of just five horses the family owns in Dubai.
“We're really, really excited – for a small owner to get into the Kentucky Derby is a dream,” Michael Burke told TRC. “When you look at the entries most of them are from big farms, there aren't many for small Irish owners.”
Read more at the Thoroughbred Racing Commentary.
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