Dubai sets '08 World Cup date

Dubai World Cup Night will be held at Nad Al Sheba on Saturday, March 29, 2008, the Emirates Racing Authority announced on Thursday.

The six-race, $21 million card, the single richest day of Thoroughbred racing in the world, will as usual, feature the world's richest race, the $6 million Dubai World Cup, plus, at $5 million each, the world's two most valuable turf races: the Dubai Duty Free and the Dubai Sheema Classic. The $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen, the $2 million UAE Derby and the $1 million Godolphin Mile complete the program.

World Cup Night will be one of 49 race meetings run in the United Arab Emirates this season, which gets under way at Nad Al Sheba on Nov. 8. Nad Al Sheba will host 21 meetings, while the turf course at Abu Dhabi will be the site of 15 meetings. There will be 10 days of racing on the dirt track at Jebel Ali and three dirt meetings at Sharjah.

Meanwhile, work continues on the Dubai Racing Club's state-of-the-art racecourse at Meydan. The pilings have been laid for the grandstand, which is scheduled to be open in time for the 2010 Dubai World Cup. Meydan will have seating for 60,000 people in front of a left-handed 12-furlong turf oval with a nine-furlong dirt track inside of that.