The US$26.5million Dubai World Cup fixture will be showcased to a truly worldwide TV audience by 40 broadcasters.
Horses from more than a dozen countries will compete in nine top-class races, including six Group 1 contests, at Meydan Racecourse on Saturday, billed as “the world’s most spectacular race day”. The feature race is the US$12m Dubai World Cup, sponsored by Emirates Airline, which celebrates its 25th running, during which period it has been won by some of the true horseracing greats
Dubai Racing Club and its appointed distribution and production company, Racecourse Media Group (RMG), have signed up a host of leading networks, which will be showing the event live.
There is unprecedented interest in the US, with Fox Sports showing the race-day live for the first time on FS1. TVG and NYRA will also broadcast the card live, while NBCSN will show highlights of the card. In addition, ESPN SportsCenter is set to show highlights in its flagship sports news programme.
Staying in the Americas, and CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and HPITV will cover the event live in Canada, while ESPN will screen the action in Latin America and Caribbean. SportsMax will also cover the Caribbean.
Far Eastern networks showing live broadcasts include the Green Channel and Fuji TV in Japan; TVB, Cable, Now TV and HKJC TV in Hong Kong; and STC TV in Singapore.
Africa is served by Super Sport (sub-Saharan Africa) and Tellytrack (South Africa), while Australasia is covered by Racing.com, Sky Thoroughbred Central (Australia) and Trackside (New Zealand).
European broadcasters include: Match (Russia); Equidia (France); Racing TV and Sky Sports Racing (UK, Republic of Ireland); Virgin Media (Republic of Ireland); SilkNet (Georgia); TVP (Poland); Sport Deutschland (Germany) and SSport and TJK TV (Turkey).
The MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region will be served by live coverage from Dubai Racing Channel and Yas TV (UAE).
Trans World Sport, the leading global sports magazine programme, will offer the fixture added exposure, as will CNN, which is covering the race for its World Sport programme. ITV will air content from the fixture within its live broadcast on Saturday in the UK; Ring will feature the event in a one-hour highlights show in Bulgaria; and Look Sport and Prima TV will show the programme on delay in Romania. Saudi TV will also show highlights.
SNTV and Reuters will distribute the event to their wide networks of news outlets.
Rishi Persad, Tom Stanley and Angus McNae will be hosting the action from London, while Nick Lightfoot and Bernard Condren will bring viewers all the latest from Meydan Racecourse.
Director of Communications and International TV Distribution at RMG, Seb Vance, said: “This is the sixth consecutive year we have worked with Dubai Racing Club on the production and distribution of its racing, and we are delighted with the widespread interest from broadcasters all around the world. The uptake is reflective of the truly global appeal of the Dubai World Cup – one of the great occasions on the sporting calendar.”