Dubai: The landmark 25th running of the $26.5 million Dubai World Cup fixture will be showcased to a worldwide television audience by 40 broadcasters on Saturday. Dubai Racing Club and its distribution and production company, Racecourse Media Group (RMG), have signed up a host of leading networks which will be showing the event live.
There is unprecedented interest in the US, with Fox Sports showing the race-day live for the first time on FS1. TVG and NYRA will also broadcast the card live, while NBCSN will show highlights of the card in their racing programme. In addition, ESPN SportsCenter is set to show highlights in its flagship sports news programme.
Staying in the Americas and CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and HPITV will cover the event live in Canada, while ESPN will screen the action in Latin America and Caribbean. SportsMax will also cover the Caribbean.
Far Eastern networks showing live broadcasts include the Green Channel and Fuji TV in Japan, TVB, Cable, Now TV and HKJC TV in Hong Kong and STC TV in Singapore.
Africa is served by Super Sport (sub-Saharan Africa) and Tellytrack (South Africa), while Australasia is covered by Racing.com, Sky Thoroughbred Central (Australia) and Trackside (New Zealand).
European broadcasters include Match (Russia); Equidia (France); Racing TV and Sky Sports Racing (UK, Republic of Ireland); Virgin Media (Republic of Ireland); SilkNet (Georgia); TVP (Poland); Sport Deutschland (Germany), Look Sport and Prima TV (Romania) and SSport and TJK TV (Turkey).
The MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region will be served by live coverage from Dubai Racing Channel and Yas TV (UAE).
Trans World Sport, the leading global sports magazine programme, will offer the fixture added exposure, as will CNN, which is covering the race for its World Sport programme. ITV will air content from the fixture within its live broadcast on Saturday in the UK, and Ring will feature the event in a one-hour highlights show in Bulgaria. SNTV and Reuters will distribute the event to their wide networks of news outlets.
Renowned racing presenters Rishi Persad, Tom Stanley and Angus McNae will be anchoring the shows from London, while Nick Lightfoot and Bernard Condren will bring viewers all the latest updates from Meydan Racecourse.
Horses from more than a dozen countries will compete in nine top-class races, including six Group 1 contests, at Meydan Racecourse on Saturday.
Seb Vance , Director of Communications and International TV Distribution at RMG, said: “This is the sixth consecutive year we have worked with Dubai Racing Club on the production and distribution of its racing and we are delighted with the widespread interest from broadcasters all around the world. The uptake is reflective of the truly global appeal of the Dubai World Cup – one of the great occasions on the sporting calendar.”
