Adding to the list of biggest, best, and richest in Dubai is the new horse racing course called Meydan, which looks like a spaceship landed in the desert. Meydan just opened at the end of January for a series of horse races called the Racing Carnival. But Meydan officially celebrated its grand opening on March 27 with the main event of the season, the Dubai World Cup, the richest raceday in the world. It may even be the richest one-day sporting event in the world, with over $26 million in prize money spread over 8 races.
With London's Ascot as the template, one of the primary attractions for attendees is the opportunity to get dressed to the nines, with ladies instructed to wear hats and men to wear coats and ties. While the official program recommends modest dress for women, the fashionistas choose to wear very dressy short tight dresses with bare shoulders and high heeled sandals, and, of course, eye-catching hairdos and perfect makeup. A milliner's delight, many ladies wear hats but even more wear what they call "fascinators" attached precariously to their heads--kind of a cross between a bird and a tiara. The men also look very nice and lots more comfortable in their loose summery suits and comfortable loafers with colorful ties and shirts, but very few hats, probably so as not to compete with their lady friends in the head gear department.
Since we were by ourselves, I did not see the need to impress anyone by buying a new outfit. I chose something simple and comfortable, what I would call classic, but not very dressy--no beads, sequins, gold or silver--prompting my husband to question whether I was in fact dressed before we left and mumble a word that sounded like "frumpy" . I am glad I didn't try to put together a look since before I got there I did not know what the look was, and there were quite a few older women like me who looked like they had tried but failed miserably. (Need I point out that short dresses look awful trying to cover up the few too many pounds that many gain with the few more years under their belts.) Now, after having been there I realize I did have a dress that would have worked, but definitely no shoes or hat, which I'm sure would have cost a fortune had I been able to find anything suitable. My husband with very little effort looked much like the other men, with the addition of a strikingly nice Panama hat. So as a couple I felt we evened out pretty nicely.
We were sitting in one of the higher priced seating areas, with an excellent view of the track and the huge video screen. We also had easy access to a nice terrace area with a string quartet playing classical music and an array of food and drink options, including dim sum, Indian dishes, hot dogs, nachos, pizza, full bottles of champagne, beer, soft drinks, and desserts, a real hodgepodge. Certainly very comfortable, which was good since with eight races to run and various fashion and other competitions and shows being put on between the races, it was going to be a very long day. Even the horses and jockeys were judged on their outfits, with one pair awarded the best turned out award for each race!
There is no betting on the races in Dubai, but there were several contests to enter on raceday. Everyone was encouraged to pick the race winners, as well as the top three finishers for each race, no entry fee required, with cash prices to the winners. (The best anyone did was pick 4 out of 7--we did not pick a single winner!) There was a raffle for a million miles on Emirates Airlines, proceeds benefiting a therapeutic riding program for the disabled, and for 2,000 people willing to pay 500 dirhams each ($136), a raffle for a Bentley Continental Flying Spur.
The eight races took place on two different tracks with different lengths based on where the starting gate was placed. The huge green turf track had a 1200-meter straightaway for the sprint race and curves for the longer races of 1800 and 2410 meters. The all-weather track inside the turf track was used for the other races, ranging from 1200 to 2000 meters in length. Arabians ran the first race and thoroughbreds ran all the others, coming from many different countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain, France, Spain, South Africa, USA, Brazil, Argentina, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, and Turkey. One of the pre-race shows displayed the flags of all the countries represented, world cup style.
I was surprised to see that the nationality of the horse sometimes had little in common with the nationality of its ownership, trainer or jockey. For example, the first race involving the Arabian horses was won by a horse from Great Britain owned by a sheikh, presumably from the UAE or another Gulf state. The winning horse for the second race was from New Zealand and owned by a Chinese couple. The ruling family of Dubai did very well, with a horse from Ireland winning one race for their Godolphin Stables, and Sheikh Hamdan, crown prince of Dubai, winning with a horse from Great Britain and another Maktoum family sheikh winning with a horse from Australia. The USA even had a winner. Great Britain had another big winner in race 7, which was owned by the composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber and named, appropriately, Dar Re Mi (whose wife accepted the trophy and prize money of $3 million in his absence). The last race of the night went to Brazil and a horse named Gloria de Campeao, with a trainer and jockey from Brazil to match, winning an amazing $6 million for their two-minute performance! This last race was the closest of all, with three horses in a dead heat at the finish. Gloria de C. was the inside horse, not very visible on the replays, just hanging on to win by a nose by decision of the judges, deflating the joy of the jockey on the outside horse who had come on strong at the finish and had pumped his fists in celebration thinking he had won. Second and third place needn't despair too much, winning $2 million and $1 million, respectively. Even 6th place won money in these races from $5,000 to $200,000.
In what I now will call typical Dubai style, the day was capped off by a spectacular show featuring acrobats, fireworks, planes, helicopters, video and light shows, which sounds like a dangerous mix, but it all came off spectacularly with no apparent mishaps. This was followed, needlessly in my opinion, by a late night concert featuring Elton John and Santana, but perhaps the concert was designed to stem the flow of people all trying to exit at once. We decided not to stay, attempting the quickest possible exit by shunning the long line for the parking lot bus and hoofing it on foot to find our car in the public parking lot. The place being so new, various parking arrangements being temporary, and our sense of direction having been shot by the circuitous route the bus took to get us to the stadium from the parking lot, we and everyone we asked were unable to find a way to walk back to the parking lot, which should have taken only 10 minutes. An hour later, we gave up and managed to catch the bus back to the parking, luckily before the concert let out!
Coincidentally, the Dubai World Cup celebrations at Meydan coincided with the observance of Earth Hour, which took place from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Dubai time on March 27. We had been notified of Earth Hour at our apartment and instructed to switch off our lights in observance. Apparently many in Dubai did the same, and famous landmarks like the Burj Al Arab and Burj Khalifa turned off the lights. But the fact that Meydan was all aglow, as an example of Dubai's conspicuous consumption, drove some to say "Dubai lied" in claiming to participate in Earth Hour. That didn't bother me--it would have been crazy to do otherwise, especially for a symbolic observance that I had never even heard of before--but it reminds us that the UAE has a long way to go if it hopes to become a leader in green building and other environmentally friendly initiatives.
At least I do my tiny bit to counter conspicuous consumption in Dubai by playing the part of the frugal frumpy American tourist who is so concerned about getting ripped off that she doesn't buy much. Either that or I am oblivious to the siren call of the mall ladies and fashion police in this consumer paradise that some like to dismiss by calling it "Do-buy." I certainly don't miss the credit card bills!
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