World's richest race

At 9.32pm today the winner of the 14th Dubai World Cup will cross the line in what has become known as the richest two minutes in sport.

It will also be one of the most significant two minutes for the UAE and indeed the world of horseracing. Racing in the UAE has come a long way since Nad Al Sheba opened for business in the early 1990s. Back then, for more than two decades, horse owners and breeders from the Arab world had worked hard to establish the Arab presence in international thoroughbred racing by winning top trophies and breeding champions all around the globe. But now the challenge was to bring world-class racing and breeding back to the Arabian Peninsula, the home of the thoroughbred's renowned ancestor, the Arabian.

Meeting a challenge

It might have seemed ambitious but as with so many of the Maktoum family's ground-breaking plans, this was no pipe dream. So, just six years after the Emirates Racing Authority was founded in 1990, an astonishing new track was unveiled to the world at Nad Al Sheba.

Then Minister of Defence Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, knew there would be sceptics who would doubt the event's success, when he said: "The Dubai World Cup is a challenge for horses, for people and for all of us here in Dubai. It is the challenge of testing the best with the best.
"We think that Dubai's position on the map makes it the ideal place to hold a contest involving different hemispheres, different continents.

We are sure we can offer a welcome like nowhere else on the globe, for horses have always been part of our culture, and of course it was from Arabian stallions mated to English mares that the thoroughbred first evolved.
"What a thought, that these fine runners flown in for the Dubai World Cup, trace their roots to native horses from this part of the world."

So, as 11 of the world's leading thoroughbreds stepped on to Dubai's refurbished Nad Al Sheba racecourse on March 27, 1996, one of horseracing's most ambitious dreams came true. Among the horses entered in the inaugural race was a 13-time winner from Australia, a seven-race winner from Great Britain, the ‘dirt horse' champion from Japan, and Cigar, North America's ‘Horse of the Year' for 1995.

The standard was set and victory by the wonder horse Cigar was the perfect end to the first Dubai World Cup, setting the benchmark for all future renewals.
In little more than a decade, the event has established itself as the piece de resistance on the international horseracing calendar.

Facing the odds
Dubai was naturally keen to build on the success of the first year but found nature had other ideas for 1997's renewal, when rain came to the desert.

It began on race day, shortly after lunch and thoughts of it being a passing shower diminished by the hour as Nad Al Sheba became increasingly waterlogged. As the afternoon continued into evening and the rain persisted, the first four events were called off but hopes still hinged on the Dubai Duty Free and Dubai World Cup races.
But then the Dubai Duty Free was lost and then came that now-famous action from Shaikh Mohammad, his finger going across his throat, signalling the event be called off.

But far from being defeated, the organisers, exemplifying the can-do attitude of Dubai, rescheduled the race for Thursday, and all but Helissio from the original field lined up. Singspiel fittingly won the showpiece for Shaikh Mohammad to reward his never-say-die attitude.

Arguably, the best race in the history of the Dubai World Cup took place in 2000 when Dubai Millennium entered to become one of the greatest steeds in modern racing history.

If ever a horse was to win the race, then Dubai Millennium was the chosen one, being named by Shaikh Mohammad in a remarkable act of faith and confidence in believing his pride and joy could win Dubai's greatest race in the millennium year.
His conviction, of course, proved spot-on as Dubai Millennium made all and shot clear under Frankie Dettori to a stunning six-length triumph from Behrens.

Dettori, who has ridden the world's best horses in the world's best races for the past two decades, immediately proclaimed his mount the best he'd ever sat on, and has remained true to that statement ever since.

Memorable moments

Other races that will live long in memory are Pleasantly Perfect's prolonged duel with Medaglia d'Oro up the Nad Al Sheba straight, living up to their billing as the world's two best horses in 2004.

Another fairytale victory was that of Invasor in 2007. Owned by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, Invasor was American Horse of the Year and trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, who had been supported by Shaikh Hamdan, not just throughout his career in the UAE and the US, but also during his battle with multiple sclerosis.

"Shaikh Hamdan has been a father figure to me from the time I started training," said McLaughlin afterwards. "But what do you give a man who has done so much
for you, and who has everything in the world? The best gift was this: victory in the world's richest race, in his city."
Whatever happens in 2009, the winner's name will forever be etched in Dubai World Cup folklore.

It will be an emotional time for those winning connections, and also for the audience both regional and global.
As John Gosden, the leading international trainer who was involved in the early plans for Nad Al Sheba's development says, "The Dubai World Cup put the course on
the international map. Cigar winning the first one in
1996 was a huge breakthrough, and the list of brilliant
winners continued.

"The development of the programme since 1996, with the introduction of the Carnival, has meant that the racing has outgrown Nad Al Sheba. The track has served its purpose well but now we have Meydan to look forward to — an amazing development on a huge scale."