Eye-watering quantities of cash are on offer in Saturday's Saudi Cup because the present day horse race takes the crown because the sport's richest occasion.
The race is providing an incredible $20 million prize handbag -- with a staggering $10 million going to the team at the back of the winning horse.
It will overtake the Dubai World Cup -- with a handbag of $12 million in 2019 -- as racing's most moneymaking prize because the kingdom continues its big-money push onto the global sporting stage.
"This is headline-grabbing stuff and it's greater about making a assertion about Saudi Arabia to announce itself to the racing international and create something it is a announcement of intent," stated Alastair Donald, of world race promoter the International Racing Bureau.
The nine-furlong dust race may be contested at the King Abdulaziz racetrack within the country's capital and comes after a number of new carrying spectacles inside the region.
Saudi Arabia has already hosted Formula E races, the Spanish Super Cup and some of European Tour golf activities, and became the controversial region for Anthony Joshua's much expected rematch towards Andy Ruiz Jr. final year.
Human Rights corporations have raised concerns that the upward push in wearing spectacles is part of a "sportswashing" program in the country -- wherein governments use the website hosting of important occasions to divert interest faraway from human rights issues.
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Felix Jakens, Amnesty International UK's Head of Campaigns, stated participants inside the new spectacle should realise it turned into "just the contemporary rewarding wearing occasion in Saudi Arabia's intensifying efforts to 'sportswash' its abysmal human rights record."
He added: "While the Saudi Cup's eye-wateringly huge prize money is getting plenty of attention, the appalling human rights scenario in Saudi Arabia is arguably the bigger story.
"We'd ask anybody involved in the Saudi Cup to nicely familiarize themselves with the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia and be prepared to speak out about it."
HRH Prince Bandar bin Khalid Al Faisal, the chairman of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia, stated the occasion become "surely the most sizeable occasion inside the records of horse racing in Saudi Arabia" and showed the country's "ambition to turn out to be a leading player" in the sport.
Racing royalty is anticipated to be joined by way of 10,000 spectators for the pageant of racing a good way to include seven other races over dust and turf.
Legendary jockey Frankie Dettori is predicted to make the experience to the Saudi Arabia at the side of a number of other well-known riders.
Organizers stated they were keen for woman jockeys to take part in its inaugural strolling and Nicola Currie is ready to ride in the showpiece occasion.
Maximum Security
On the track, a number of elite runners stand a hazard of claiming the bumper prize package.
American raider Maximum Security is possibly the brightest megastar and is among the favorites to win the coveted prize.
Despite prevailing at the best level, the four-year-old might be maximum famous for his disqualification from the Kentucky Derby last year.
It was the first time a Derby "winner" changed into denied victory because of interference on the track, and the horse become subsequently pulled from the second one leg of the Triple Crown -- the Preakness Stakes.
Maximum Security had led from wire to wire in the Derby however will face possibly his toughest competition in Saudi Arabia.
To claim the $10 million prize, he will must beat the likes of Mucho Gusto, which won the $nine million Pegasus World Cup -- formerly the global's richest race -- earlier this year.
Midnight Bisou and McKinzie are widely considered the different top contenders within the race which guarantees to have a big impact at the sport.
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