The opening of Dubai's $2 billion race track is the latest indication that the state has no plans to scale down ambitions to host high profile sports events. The new Meydan racing facility includes two race tracks, a grandstand for 60,000 spectators, a 290-room-with-a-view luxury hotel, a marina and a racing museum. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum is among the biggest spenders on thoroughbreds. He also bankrolls the world's richest horse race – the Dubai World Cup – and is determined to put the Middle East's biggest social and sporting event on a par with Royal Ascot and the Kentucky Derby. “They all have lots of history and have produced many champions,” said Saeed Humaid al-Tayer, the Chairman of Dubai Racing Club and Chief Executive of Meydan, a government-run company spearheading the project. “We'd like to do the same,” Al-Tayer told The Associated Press in an interview. The inaugural race on the new 1.75 kilometer (8.75 furlongs) track with a synthetic surface will take place Thursday. The race complex will be officially opened for this year's Dubai World Cup on March 27. A 1,200m turf race worth $1 million was added for the 2010 event, making the 15th Dubai World Cup an eight-race meeting, hosting four Group 1, two Group 2, one Group 3 thoroughbred races and one Group 1 Purebred Arabian race - all worth a combined $26 million, a staggering amount in an economic recession that has seen Dubai's economy plunge deep into the red.
