(CNN)When Diomed pipped Boudrow to victory within the original Derby in 1780, Sir Charles Bunbury pocketed a touch over £1,000. Britain’s richest race gives greater than £921,000 (extra than $1 million) to the winner these days, but even that bumper pot is dwarfed with the aid of some of the riches on offer around the world. And it seems horse racing’s financial hand’s race is accumulating tempo, with the name of global’s richest race converting hands three instances within the final two years.
Until 2016, the Dubai World Cup was the marketplace leader, with the winner that 12 months California Chrome scooping almost $5 million. Then came a new edition to the calendar, the Pegasus World Cup in Florida, with a watch-watering handbag of $12 million with almost $7 million going to first-positioned Arrogate. The Pegasus even boosted its pot to $16M the following year, earlier than dropping the purse to $nine million and spreading the wealth throughout races in 2019.
But subsequent year, a megabucks sum of $20 million will tempt proprietors and trainers to Saudi Arabia for the inaugural Saudi Cup. The first prize of $10 million — three times as a whole lot as to Europe’s richest race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe — is likely to seize lots of interest inside the racing global.
‘One of the extraordinary conferences’
According to Alastair Donald, of world race promoter the International Racing Bureau, the Saudi Cup isn’t just a brazen try to be biggest and excellent. He draws parallels with the Dubai World Cup, devised by way of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in 1996. “I don’t assume being the richest becomes the purpose,” said Donald of the Saudi Cup. “It becomes similar to Sheikh Mohammed’s aim to create something that became special at the time in phrases of being really worth loads of cash. That was simply part of the plan to position Dubai on the map as a racing kingdom and as somewhere that was going to turn out to be a vacation destination. “I assume it becomes a success and has stood the check of time – it is still one of the excellent conferences.”
, After two chart-topping years, Pegasus organizers split the coins throughout the unique dirt race and a brand new turf race to attract extra international talent. “It’s just about evolving,” Tim Rivto, COO of organizer The Stronach Group, instructed CNN Sport. “I assume when we look lower back in twenty years, it’ll appear very extraordinary from what it gave the impression of within the beginning.” He delivered: “This is headline-grabbing stuff, and it is greater about making an announcement approximately Saudi Arabia to announce itself to the racing international and create something it is a declaration of cause.”
‘New human beings’
The Saudi Cup is the modern-day in a sequence of game and entertainment ventures aimed toward improving the image of Saudi Arabia to the broader world. Prince Bandar bin Khalid al Faisal, chairman of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia, says he hopes the event will entice racing fanatics to “come and take a better examine our lifestyle and our country: discover a place that they never had an idea of journeying and perhaps see it anew.”
“The Saudi Cup is similar to what Dubai has performed,” adds Donald, whose company became pivotal within the release of the Dubai World Cup in addition to the moneymaking Breeders’ Cup 12 years in advance plus the Japan Cup, first run in 1981. “It’s been quite cautiously chosen in phrases of its timing and in which it fits inside the calendar among the Pegasus and the Dubai World Cup. “Plus, the world needs new human beings to come back to the marketplace. This will deliver more Saudi owners into the game, including to the current markets.”
