Dubai World Cup purse bumped to $12 million

The purse of the Dubai World Cup will rise to $12 million in 2019, up from the $10 million purse the race has offered since 2010.

The purse increase was announced Wednesday on the website of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, ruler of Dubai and the most prominent force in Dubai racing.

The winner’s share of the World Cup purse is $7.2 million.

Total purse outlay for the World Cup card, the release on the website said, will increase to $35 million next year from $30 million.

Purses for the two $6 million races on the card, the Sheema Classic and the Dubai Turf, will be unchanged next year, as will the $1 million Kahayla Classic for purebred Arabians, but the other World Cup card races all will have higher purses. The Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint purse will double to $2 million and the other affected purses all rise by $500,000 – the Golden Shaheen to $2.5 million, the United Arab Emirates Derby to $2.5 million, the Gold Cup to $1.5 million, and the Godolphin Mile to $1.5 million. The UAE Derby is now the second-richest race for 3-year-olds on any surface, behind only the $3.8 million Japanese Derby.

The World Cup began as a $4 million race, was bumped to $6 million, and rose to $10 million when Meydan replaced Nad Al Sheba as the race’s host site in 2010. Sheikh Mohammed during the World Cup card this past March strongly suggested a purse increase was imminent. There was speculation the World Cup purse might rise as high as $20 million but the actual increase, for next year at least, is far more modest.