Increase in high-profile fixtures on Meydan agenda, says Al Tayer

Dubai: Having already promised to become the greatest racecourse in the world, Dubai's impending super-structure Meydan will also aim to host the best racing in the world too.

With speculation rife in America that the 2010 Breeders' Cup meeting may be hosted at the approximately $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) racing city, Meydan chairman Saeed Al Tayer confirmed that an increase in high-profile fixtures was on the agenda.

While Al Tayer did not refer to any specific extra Group 1 races, let alone hosting the USA's most prestigious meeting, his words left no doubt that the quality of racing at Meydan will match the state-of-the-art facilities.

Asked about more top-level international racing in Dubai, the chairman said: "Let me take you back to 2004. If you look back, we had 244 horses running here and in 2007 that number was 400.

"The average rating of the horses was 99 and in that period we have shown our commitment to expansion and excellence.

"In Dubai, we are world class in terms of quality all around the world and we want to continue to improve and get better and better.

"There are few venues, if any in the world, that are host to such top-class dirt and turf tracks as we will have at Meydan.

"We revealed Meydan to the world on the eve of the 2007 Dubai World Cup, and work on the site began just 48 hours later, which shows how fast this incredibly exciting venture is moving."

Astounding scale

As more details about the make-up of Meydan come through, the sheer scale of the project is even more astounding than first thought.

Due to come online for the 2010 Dubai World Cup meeting, which will see the blue-riband race's prize money increased to $10 million for the current $6 million, the course will be built around the existing Nad Al Sheba track which will continue to host horse racing much as usual for nearly the next three years.

Al Tayer also confirmed that the dirt track might be changed to polytrack in line with the policy of many other courses around the world, although that decision will be made sometime next year.

Meydan, which in Arabic means a place where people congregate and compete, will feature a world-class grandstand and also serve as a major business and conference district.

The total square area of the development will be 76 million square feet.