On July 25th, the ruler of Dubai announced that the horse racing World Cup prize purse will be raised to $12 million in 2019. The increase cements the World Cup’s place as one of the richest events on the horse racing calendar. The Dubai World Cup is set to take place in March next year.

One of the Richest Races of the Year
The Dubai World Cup was once the richest race in the world, with prize money standing at $10 million since the inception of the race in 2010. It was only in 2017 that the Pegasus World Cup Invitational in Florida offered a purse of $12 million, and then in 2018, increased the winnings further to the staggering sum of $16 million.

Though the increase in the prize purse for the Dubai World Cup will not overtake that offered by the Pegasus World Cup, it does mean that the eventual winner will receive the highest first-place prize in the world. The winning horse’s connections will walk away with $7.2 million, $200,000 more than last year’s Pegasus World Cup winner.

To put the prize money into perspective, the Grand National, the most valuable jump race in Europe, has a total prize purse of £1 million, with £561,300 going to the first. This year, it was one of the favourites in the Grand National odds that won the event. Tiger Roll, running at around 10/1 before the race, took home the half-a-million prize for his connections. Tiger Roll is now one of the favourites for next year’s Grand National.

Increases to Multiple Events
The ruler of Dubai has also increased the total prize money for all the races held during the World Cup to $35 million. Last year, the total purse for all the events was $30 million.

Other changes include:

• The Dubai Golden Shaheen will increase $500,000 to a total of $2.5 million
• The Al Quoz Sprint prize purse will double to a total of $2 million
• The Dubai Gold Cup will now be worth $1.5 million, making it one of the richest staying events of the year
• The Saeed and Mohammed Al Naboodah Group will now have a purse of $2.5 million, making it the richest dirt event in the world
• The Godolphin Mile will increase to $1.5 million, making it the second richest dirt event in the world

The Longines Dubai Sheema Classic will remain the same, as will the Dubai Turf. Both will have prize purses of $6 million. The prize money for the Dubai Kahayla Classic will also remain untouched at $1 million.

About the Dubai World Cup
The Dubai World Cup was first held in 1996 and had prize money of $4 million. The Dubai World Cup is a thoroughbred series of nine races, held at the Meydan Racecourse.

There are eight thoroughbred contests and one Purebred Arabian contest. The final race is the World Cup itself, a 2km flat race with record-breaking first prizes. Last year, the total prize pool for all the events was $30 million.

Event 1 winner Thunder Storm won the World Cup. The next Dubai World Cup is in March 2019.