Bhupat Seemar looks well placed to land consecutive victories at G1 Al Maktoum Challenge (1900m, dirt) at Meydan in Dubai on Friday night (Saturday, 24 January, Hong Kong time), with the trainer saddling up six of the contest’s nine runners, including last year’s quinella pair.

It is reigning champion Walk Of Stars, who again looks Seemar’s top chance, with the seven-year-old son of Dubawi drawing nicely in barrier three after winning from gate six 12 months ago.

“First of all, it’s a privilege to be given so many good horses. It’s tough to line them up because there are some nice horses there, but Walk Of Stars is obviously the highest-rated,” Seemar said. “Then you have got Imperial Emperor, who was second last year, just below him.”

Fourth behind Hit Show in last April’s G1 Dubai World Cup (2000m, dirt), Walk Of Stars returned on 19 December with a nice third behind Heart Of Honor – who he reopposes in the Al Maktoum Challenge – over the same course and distance as Friday night’s contest.

“Walk Of Stars’ original target was to come here without a prep run but then the connections had a meeting with me and they said, ‘we probably should get a run into him before we go to the Group 1’,” Seemar said.

“So, we gave him a run. He had a Group 1 penalty, he was also getting penalised for weight-for-age and he was only about 75 per cent fit, so I think the last furlong (200m) just told on him a little bit and he ran third to Heart Of Honor. It’s level weights here so it’s going to be an interesting race.”

Just shy of three lengths off Walk Of Stars in his first Group 1 assignment a year ago, Imperial Emperor is now more experienced and enters the race off the back of an eye-catching success in one of the key lead-up contests, the G2 Al Maktoum Mile (1600m, dirt), on 19 December at Meydan.

Another of Seemar’s runners is Kabirkhan, the much-loved chestnut galloper who began his career with three wins in Kazakhstan and five in Russia before joining Doug Watson’s stable in Dubai.

Kabirkhan won the 2024 Al Maktoum Challenge in his second run for Watson before finishing seventh last year, and the son of California Chrome enters this year’s race below his best.

“He’s only had one start for me but his training has been very good. He still retains a lot of ability. We tried the blinkers and it looks to have worked, I think he was more focused, so that’s what our plan is this time,” Seemar said.

Rounding out Seemar’s hand are Artorius, Remorse and Killer Collect.

“Artorius had some good form in America and he’s by Arrogate, who previously won the Dubai World Cup, and these Arrogates improve with age,” said Seemar of the seven-year-old.

The opposition for Walk Of Stars and Seemar is headlined by the Jamie Osborne-trained Heart Of Honor, who will be ridden by the trainer’s daughter, Saffie.

Heart Of Honor was victorious over the course and distance in the Listed The Entisar (1900m, dirt) last month at Meydan, defeating Walk Of Stars by almost four lengths, and the improving four-year-old looks poised for a big showing following two wins from two runs this season.

Rounding out the Al Maktoum Challenge field are Tumbarumba and Masmak.

The Al Maktoum Challenge is carded as S1-3 and will be run at 12.25am (Hong Kong time) on Saturday, 24 January.