The Business of Sports… Track Star

Rising with astonishing speed from the sand at the back of Nad al Sheba’s Maktoum grandstand is what some are calling the future of horseracing – Dubai’s sparkling new Meydan racing complex.

Frank Gabriel Jnr is a busy man. Last year the CEO of the Dubai Racing Club, alongside the organisation’s Chairman Saeed Al Tayer, unveiled an ambitious plan to build a cutting edge racecourse facility – just a stone’s throw from the world-famous Nad al Sheba track – that promised to take horseracing in the region to a whole new level. It’s a huge undertaking: in addition to his day-to-day responsibility for ensuring the continued smooth running of racing in Dubai, Gabriel must also bring in the multi-billion dollar project – the self-titled ‘Horse Racing City’ – on-time and on-budget during a period when horseracing in the Emirate has never been more popular.

The landmark development is the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and will span 76 million square feet and feature state-of-the-art dirt and turf tracks, while a world-class grandstand will boast a capacity of between 55,000-60,000. “The racing facilities will be outstanding,” enthuses Gabriel. “However, it’s not just about the racing season. We want to maximise entertainment all year around. The new facility can stage conferences, concerts, functions and carry on through the off-season. It will be a tourist attraction as well as a business community.”

As part of this vision, Meydan will offer residential units, office blocks, retail space and leisure facilities as well as the huge new racecourse. There will be 17 building blocks offering 2.9 million square feet of office space to all types of businesses, while a tram line will connect the grandstand, business park and city. A large retail complex will cater to high-spending shoppers, and on completion in 2009 officials expect the city to have between 60,000 and 100,000 people living and working in it. And while developers are keen to point out that the resort will offer something for everyone, there’s no doubt that the big draw remains its annual flagship event, the Dubai World Cup.

“The World Cup has grown in leaps and bounds and now has a really high profile as an event not just in the thoroughbred racing world, but also as a key event in the social calendar for people both in the region and all over the world,” Gabriel confirms. “We’ve been able to work on that exposure with our sponsors and partners to continue growing the brand. I think it also helps that the Dubai World Cup is now up there on the world stage, and the guests that we’re receiving from around the world helps us grow that exposure further.”

And with millions of dollars pouring into sports infrastructure across the Middle East, it is no surprise to find that racing is proving to be an attractive investment. People in the region have a particular affinity with horses and horseracing, and attendances for events at the Dubai Racing Club’s current home at Nad Al Sheba are soaring.

Gabriel agrees. “There’s obviously a financial driver for the growth of racing in the region, but it’s also cultural,” he says. “For many years, the Maktoum family has had a love of the sport, of the horse, and they’ve established a vision for building up a racing empire – in the UAE, and also on the international stage in Europe and Asia and North America. I think the growth of sports in the UAE region – not only in Dubai, but overall – has grown tremendously, and we’re a big part of that. It brings not only financial stability to a lot of the infrastructure, but it also brings exposure, and that exposure can lead to other benefits such as financial growth, more tourism, greater retail spending, and so on. I think it will really explode over the next few years.”

Gabriel’s vision is to grow the exposure of the Dubai World Cup not only as a racing entity, but as an event in its own right. “As it grows,” he says, “we hope that the purses will grow.” The event already has the richest purse in racing,but during the unveiling of the plans for the new racecourse it was announced that the prize money for the 2010 Dubai World Cup – the first at the new venue – will top US$10 million. “ It’s all about branding and exposure of the race, of the event and of Dubai in the UAE, and we continue to work on the growth of that. That’s our mission.”

Nevertheless, Gabriel is keen to expand the focus beyond that of the March showpiece. A huge part of this effort has involved building up a programme of events throughout the year so that the racecourse is sustainable as a business. “Since I’ve been here, the last three years have been spent trying to improve the whole racing calendar, from November to March,” he admits. “We know we have a great event on the night of the last Saturday in March, the Dubai World Cup. But we’ve also worked very hard on developing the Dubai International Carnival, and it’s grown in leaps and bounds in terms of its exposure; and two years ago we developed the Winter Racing Challenge to give a theme through the whole year. It’s our aim to continue that growth in quality, to actually make every night a world-class event. It’s about expanding the business to take in more international competition throughout the year.”

Which brings us back to the new venue. Construction is moving at a furious pace ahead of the official opening in March 2010, with a total of 52,000 cubic metres of concrete already being laid and 2600 construction workers currently employed on site – a figure that will rise to 5000 at the height of the works. “It will be one of the most unique and iconic buildings in Dubai,” says Gabriel. It’s a bold vision, but don’t bet against him and his team making it a reality. After all, the Arabian horse is a breed with a reputation for intelligence, spirit and stamina – attributes that could just as well apply to the management team of the Dubai Racing Club itself.