Famous Horse Races - Dubai World Cup
Race type:
Thoroughbred - Flat racing
Distance: 2,000 metres (10 furlongs)
Purse: US$6 million
Location: Nad Al Sheba Racecourse
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Inaugurated: 1996
Track: Dirt, left-handed
Weight: SH 3yo: 54.5kg. NH &
SH 4yo+: 57kg
Website:
Dubai World Cup
 The
Dubai World Cup is a Thoroughbred horse race,
sponsored by Emirates Horse Racing Authority (EHRA).
The Dubai World Cup stands alone at the summit
of international horse racing. As horse racing
entered a new era with the changeover of centuries,
it was the Dubai World Cup, inaugurated in 1996,
that paved the way forward.
With the United Arab
Emirates and the Middle East, in general, hosting
what is now the centerpiece of international racing
and recognized as the thoroughbred "World
Championship" the Dubai World Cup represents
the wheel turning the full circle. Every thoroughbred
in the world today descends from the three Arabian
stallions exported from this part of the world
- the Darley Arabian, the Byerley Turk and the
Godolphin Arabian.
The race is operated through the Emirates Horse
Racing Authority (EHRA) whose Chairman is Sheikh
Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Presidential
Affairs of Dubai.
The race was the creation of the Ruler of Dubai
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum who owns
Darley Stud & Godolphin Racing, one of the
world's leading thoroughbred breeding and racing
operations.
Part of the Dubai World Cup Night of races, it
is the world's richest horse race, with a purse
of USD 6 million since 2004. It is a Group 1 flat
race on dirt for Northern Hemisphere Thoroughbred
four-year-olds & up and for Southern Hemisphere
Thoroughbred three-year-olds & up run over
a distance of 2,000 metres (10 furlongs) in late
March.
The race's first winner was the future United
States Hall of Fame thoroughbred, Cigar, owned
by Allen E. Paulson.
In 2006 the Dubai World Cup was broadcast live
on TVG Network and HRTV and taped later for showing
on ABC. It was the first time that the race was
shown on national TV in the United States.
Dubai World Cup
The world's richest race hands out $15.25 million
in prize money alone, and costs millions more to
organize, including flying in horses from Japan,
the United States, South Africa and Europe.
But the Nad Al Sheba racetrack -- and the United
Arab Emirates -- doesn't allow betting, so there
is little income to offset the millions laid out
to hold the one-day, once-a-year spectacle.
Even entry and parking is free, allowing poor immigrant
families to mingle among the world's wealthy racing
aficionados who've jetted in for the glamorous event.
Sponsors' fees and broadcast rights recoup a portion
of the costs, but most are simply paid for from
the pockets of Dubai's royal family, the Maktoums.
The family, incidentally, owns the powerful Dubai-based
Godolphin stable, with several horses running on
the day's seven-race card.
With the race expected to reach one billion households,
the Maktoum family stands to reap its dividends
by pitching this beachfront sheikdom as one of the
world's hottest luxury destinations.
They might also use the race to showcase Dubai as
one of the earth's most cosmopolitan cities.
The crowd milling in Nad Al Sheba's grandstands,
clubhouses and on the lawns covered the gamut of
nationalities, adorned in their finest ethnic costumes,
enforced by strict dress codes demanding tasteful
clothing.
Emirati men in long white dishdasha robes strolled
with women in black head-to-toe chadors and copper-colored
facial masks. Pakistani men in skullcaps decorated
in glittering cut glass consulted their racing forms,
alongside Indian women in bright, billowing saris.
Westerners in sharp suits and dresses, with audacious
hats, thronged at a food pavilion, quaffing champagne
and watching fashion shows.
At the other end of the grandstand, Somali men in
skullcaps and white robes knelt in prayer, foreheads
pressed to the grass.
Beyond the track, with a backdrop of Dubai's glimmering
modern skyscrapers, camel trainers could be seen
walking their prize beasts amid the sand dunes.
Camels also race at Nad Al Sheba, in another age-old
tradition among Arabs.
The American champion Cigar's epic victory in 1996
began an honour roll of champions and set in motion
an event that is now unrivalled in the world of
international horse racing. Since Cigar there has
been Singspiel, Silver Charm, Almutawakel and Dubai
Millennium.
In such a short space of time, the Dubai World Cup
has produced a growth curve in quality unmatched
anywhere else in the world. It's status as an event
now sees it as the highlight of an evening of racing
which is the richest in the history of racing. At
US$6million, the Dubai World Cup is the jewel in
the crown of a programme of racing which, on March
24th 2001, will be worth $US15.25million.
The 2001 Dubai World Cup meeting set the benchmark
with 70 international runners arriving in the United
Arab Emirates to compete on the evening, the very
best facilities awaiting both horses and their connections,
highlighting the standards of excellence of which
the UAE and Dubai are world renowned.
The Dubai World Cup meeting is the centre of massive
international exposure for Dubai capturing an audience
in the hundreds of millions. The meeting is attended
by an unrivalled number of media and features regularly
in prominent magazines and newspapers around the
world.
The increasing quality of the Dubai World Cup itself
is recorded by the post race average ratings for
all starters in the event. |
