The WRC makes up the first part of the season and usually runs from early November to early January. The ten-week festival is an exciting new sporting and social initiative, designed to capture the imagination of horseracing fans in the UAE.

Specifically aimed at the local equine stars in the UAE, the WRC gives the lower-rated horses the chance to build their credentials throughout a series of races over three different distances, 1,200, 1,600 and 2,000 metres. The leading six horses in each of these race distance categories will have a chance to compete in their individual distances during the The Winter Racing Challenge Finale, and should boost their eligibility to compete on the next level – the Dubai International Racing Carnival.

The DIRC, which will run from the middle of January to the beginning of March, attracts some of the finest horses from all around the world to compete for some of the US$31 million on offer.

This initiative was introduced in 2004 to pave the way towards the success and growth of racing in Dubai. It attracts some of the finest horses from all around the world and the total value of the prize money stands at over US$35 million today. The Carnival has become a truly pioneering festival and shifted the focus of the international horseracing community. The temptation to come and race in opulent surroundings of a city oasis in the middle of a desert has proved to be too hard to resist. As a result, Dubai now enjoys the reputation of being one of the most diverse in the world, and home to some of the finest international horseracing.

As the calibre of horses competing in both the Carnival and the season’s closing flagship meeting  improved steadily , so has the global appeal of both events grown, with top class runners coming from all over the world - Great Britain, the United States of America, Japan, France, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Australia and Hong Kong to name a few.

The season then culminates with the Dubai World Cup meeting, which traditionally falls on the last Saturday in March. The world’s richest race-day features three of the most valuable races on the planet: the Dubai Sheema Classic sponsored by Nakheel, the Dubai Duty Free sponsored by Dubai Duty Free, and of course, the Dubai World Cup, sponsored by Emirates Airlines. Also on the card are the Dubai Golden Shaheen, the UAE Derby and Godolphin Mile, while the evening kicks off with the Group 1 Dubai Kahayla Classic for Purebred Arabians.