The Dubai assault by leading South African owner Marcus Jooste is over with his team of horses failing to acclimatise to the local conditions.

Jooste’s racing manager Derek Brugman reported: “The horses travelled to Dubai too poorly this time and there is no point in trying to get them ready to race.

“We will give them a month off and then decide what we want to do with them.”

Yorker, winner of the Summer Cup, Horse Chestnut Stakes and Champions Challenge in South Africa, is expected to join Mike de Kock’s base at Newmarket in England.

However plans for other Jooste-own horses depend on whether American authorities grant Brugman’s request for a more reasonable approach to the final part of their quarantine restrictions.

“We have asked if they will excuse Contagious Equine Metritis requirement in which they insist – after the 60-day quarantine lockdown – on a further month in C.E.M. quarantine during which the colts are required to test breed to two mares,” Brugman said.

This program creates obvious problems with an entire horse about to go back into training. Many American vets are of the opinion that the stipulation makes little sense.

Meanwhile Jooste’s Cape Guineas winner Act Of War has returned to trainer Joey Ramsden’s yard after having a break following his shock Investec Cape Derby defeat on Met day.

Brugman said: “We are in no rush with him. If he doesn’t go to Durban we can keep him in Cape Town for his four-year-old campaign.

“We are not going to put him through the American requirement and nor are we going to do three months in Mauritius with horses just standing in camps.”

Ramsden still has to finalise the make-up of his Durban contingent.

“Kingvoldt’s owners are keen for the colt to have a crack at the KRA Guineas on May 2 which is four weeks before the Golden Horse Sprint at Scottsville.” he said.

King Of Pain, winner of last season’s Rising Sun Gold Challenge, has more immediate objectives at Turffontein.

“He goes for the HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut on Saturday week and I might keep him there for the President’s Champions Challenge four weeks later.”Ramsden said.