Australia’s quarantine regulations mean Hong Kong Cup winner Akeed Mofeed will bypass the Sydney autumn carnival in favour of Dubai.

Trainer Richard Gibson and owner Pan Sutong weighed the options but Australia’s strict quarantine protocols proved the stumbling block.

After Akeed Mofeed won the Hong Kong Cup in December, Gibson said the $4 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick on April 19 was an attractive option.

But that race would rule him out of the QEII Cup on home soil eight days later.

“In the end, the quarantine situation with Australia made the decision for us,” Gibson told the South China Morning Post.

“If we go there instead of Dubai, the quarantine requirements after the race ensure that Akeed Mofeed would be cancelled out of the QEII Cup.

“If we take on the challenge of Dubai instead, the situation is that he can still be in and out of there, and back here to run in the QEII Cup as well. Australia would just cancel that option altogether.”

“The QEII is worth a lot of money, too. It’s at home and at a course and distance where the horse has already won a Derby and a Hong Kong Cup.

“And as a Hong Kong trainer, the QEII Cup has to be a big item on the agenda every year.

Gibson said which Dubai race Akeed Mofeed would contest had yet to be decided.

“We still have to think about which race – the Dubai Duty Free or the Dubai World Cup,” he said.

Japanese horse Lelouch had already been taken out of contention for the Sydney race after suffering an injury in last month’s Arima Kinen.

The Queen Elizabeth Stakes is the flagship of The Championships, a reformatted Sydney autumn carnival which has had a $10 million government cash injection.

The Queen Elizabeth Stakes day will coincide with the visit to Australia by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with organisers hopeful they will be on hand to open the new grandstand, expected to be named for the monarch.