Dubai: The £100,000 Charity Sprint, Europe’s most valuable sprint handicap for three-year-olds, is the highlight of a unique charity raceday at York Racecourse this weekend.

Now in its 45th year, the Macmillan Charity Raceday has raised more than £6.2 million (Dh34.78 million) for people affected by cancer.

The event features an attractive seven-race card including the 1,200-metre showpiece race, which looks to have attracted a maximum field of 20 runners.

The roll of honour in this race includes top sprinters such as Cadeaux Genereux and Sheikh Albadou.

Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, is represented by Mukhmal and Mubtaghaa.

The former, who has been described by Shaikh Hamdan’s retained rider Paul Hanagan as a ‘straightforward’ horse, is a 14/1 chance behind the 5/1 race favourite, Twilight Son, Henry Candy’s unbeaten son of Kyllachy.

Mukhmal comes into the race on the back of a comfortable victory at Newmarket last month, when he won at odds of 25/1.

Mubtaghaa is looking to bounce back following a sub-par performance in the Listed Investec Surrey Stakes on Oaks Day at Epsom last weekend.

Trained by William Haggas, the son of Acclamation posted a smart victory in the Premier Yearling Stakes at York last August.

Twilight Son has impressed in all three career starts, the last of which he won in decisive fashion when beating nine rivals headed by Richard Hannon’s Desert Force in a Newmarket handicap.

Racing on Saturday begins at 5pm UAE time with the 27th running of The Queen Mother’s Cup, the richest race for lady amateur riders in Britain and a contest won by Princess Anne in 1988.

In the day’s other racing highlight at Musselburgh, the William Hill Scottish Sprint Cup is the feature event on the card.

Michael Appleby’s Demora won £62,250 when she landed the 2014 renewal and another big field of promising sprinters is expected to face the starter.

The field is headed by trainer Eric Alston’s seasoned sprinter Red Baron and also sees Demora return to defend her title.

Other likely contenders include Distant Past, Barnet Fair and Boom The Groom.

Meanwhile, the British Horseracing Authority has approved an application for Newcastle’s Flat track to be converted to an all-weather surface.

The renovations will result in a floodlit straight mile course and the track will participate in the 2016 season as an all-weather venue.

A total of £11 million has been set aside for the redevelopment, which, along with the laying of the new surface and floodlights, will include refurbishment of the saddling boxes and pre-parade ring, according to Sporting Life.

The work will begin in September, with Newcastle’s remaining Flat fixtures taking place at fellow Arc venues.

Newmarket-based Ed Dunlop, writing on his blog, said: “There is no doubt that northern trainers will be major beneficiaries of such a move, and the north badly needed an all-weather track, but it is a real shame to lose one of the best turf courses in the country and it’s hard to imagine that the Northumberland Plate will be the same sort of spectacle in the future.”