Galaxy of stars in fray for Dubai World Cup
Overall prize money increased to $27.2m
Dubai: The creme de la creme of racehorses from 24 countries figure in the preliminary list of entries for the 2012 Dubai World Cup programme, the world's richest race meeting to be held at Meydan on March 31.
Five US Breeders' Cup winners are among the entries as are the winners of last year's Kentucky Derby (Animal Kingdom), Britain's Epsom Oaks (Blue Bunting), Champion Stakes (Cirrus des Aigles), Ascot Gold Cup (Fame And Glory) and Eclipse Stakes (So You Think) together with Australia's Melbourne Cup (Dunaden), Golden Slipper (Sepoy), Caulfield Guineas (Helmet) and world champion sprinter Black Caviar. Also lined up are all of last year's Group One winners in Hong Kong, the Singapore Airlines International Cup winner, two Cartier Award winners and four Eclipse Award winners as well as defending titleholders Presvis (Dubai Duty Free) and Rocket Man (Dubai Golden Shaheen).
This year's meeting will be "bigger and better" as Meydan officials announced the addition of the newly renamed Dubai Gold Cup to the programme, a move that will increase the racecard to nine events and overall prize money to $27.250 million (Dh100 million).
Highly competitive
This latest addition to the already highly competitive card completes the Dubai World Cup programme's offerings to feature significant events for all divisions, on all surfaces, from sprinters to stayers. The Dubai World Cup, worth $10 million in prize money alone, is classified as a "Group One Flat Race" for four-year-old thoroughbreds and above, and spans a distance of 2,000m.
