Dubai World Cup Winners Since 2000

Dubai World Cup Winners Since 2000

The Dubai World Cup is my own personal start to the Flat Racing year as it's the first major International Group 1 where the top horses from the US, UK, Ireland and Japan, and rarely Australia make the trip to Meydan in Dubai to race for the biggest prize fund for a race in the world.

The race comes at the end of March which is about the time that the UK's National Hunt racing finishes with the Aintree festival and The Grand National. The jumping continues all year of course and the Irish Jump season is finished by their Punchestown Festival which is held at the end of April.

However for major events I think the Dubai Carnival of races which runs in the preceding 3 months before the big day at the end of March allows horses from around the world to compete for a place in the World Cup event as well as take place in races that provide winners with up to £761,177,0.00 in prize money, (or $10,000,000 if you like round numbers) in the months before the big event. 

However as most of these races are on dirt I count them as AW racing, just like our own Winter AW Derby event. As the Dubai World Cup night has the first big turf group 1 races of the year I see that as the starting place for our flat season.

When Meydan first opened it only held one day of racing, the Dubai World Cup event, but now the Dubai Carnival allows Meydan to hold top class racing not only in the Carnival and World Cup night but in other events throughout the year,

The Dubai World Cup event is held on one day at the end of March and allows the best thoroughbreds from around the world to compete for the biggest prize fund for a single race with $12,000,000 up for the winner and following horses home.

For instance in 2019 Thunder Snow won $7,460,702.74 or £5,669,291.34. 

The prize money doesn't stop there as even the 5th placed horse gets over a quarter of a million pounds in prize money e.g in 2019 the 2nd place horse got £1,889,763.78, 3rd £944,881.89, 4th £472,440.94 and getting 5th £283,464.57.

It is a Group 1 flat race on dirt for Northern Hemisphere Thoroughbred four-year-olds & up and for Southern Hemisphere Thoroughbred three-year-olds & up run over a distance of 1m 2f or 2,000 metres. 

It was held at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse before 2009. In 2010, the Dubai World Cup was first held at the new Meydan Racecourse on March 27, on all-weather surface known as Tapeta. However, it was held as dirt race again in 2015 due to the high maintenance cost and being an unpopular condition among American participants who love running on dirt rather than polytrack surfaces.

Here are a list of the winners of the event since 2000.

Year	Winner	Foaled	Trained	Owned	Age	Jockey	Trainer	Owner	Time
2019	Thunder Snow	IRE	UAE	UAE	5	Christophe Soumillon	Saeed bin Suroor	Godolphin	2:03.58
2018	Thunder Snow	IRE	UAE	UAE	4	Christophe Soumillon	Saeed bin Suroor	Godolphin	2:01.38
2017	Arrogate	US	US	KSA	4	Mike E. Smith	Bob Baffert	Juddmonte Farms	2:02.53
2016	California Chrome	US	US	US	5	Victor Espinoza	Art Sherman	California Chrome LLC	2:01.83
>2015	Prince Bishop	IRE	UAE	UAE	8	William Buick	Saeed bin Suroor	Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum	2:03.24
2014	African Story	GB	UAE	UAE	7	Silvestre de Sousa	Saeed bin Suroor	Godolphin Racing	2:01.61
2013	Animal Kingdom	US	US	AUS/US	5	Joel Rosario	Graham Motion	Arrowfield Stud & Team Valor	2:03.21
2012	Monterosso	GB	UAE	UAE	5	Mickael Barzalona	Mahmood al Zarooni	Godolphin Racing	2:02.67
2011	Victoire Pisa	JPN	JPN	JPN	4	Mirco Demuro	Katsuhiko Sumii	Yoshimi Ichikawa	2:05.94
2010	Glória de Campeão	BRA	FRA	BRA	7	T. J. Pereira	Pascal Bary	Stud Estrela Energia	2:03.83
2009	Well Armed	US	US	US	6	Aaron Gryder	Eoin G. Harty	WinStar Farm LLC	2:01.01
2008	Curlin	US	US	US	4	Robby Albarado	Steve Asmussen	Stonestreet Stables	2:00.15
2007	Invasor	ARG	US	UAE	5	Fernando Jara	Kiaran McLaughlin	Hamdan Al Maktoum	1:59:97
2006	Electrocutionist	US	UAE	UAE	5	Frankie Dettori	Saeed bin Suroor	Godolphin Racing	2:01.32
2005	Roses in May	US	US	US	5	John Velazquez	Dale L. Romans	Ken & Sarah Ramsey	2:02.17
2004	Pleasantly Perfect	US	US	US	6	Alex Solis	Richard Mandella	Diamond A Racing Corp.	2:00.24
2003	Moon Ballad	IRE	UAE	UAE	4	Frankie Dettori	Saeed bin Suroor	Godolphin Racing	2:00.48
2002	Street Cry	IRE	UAE	UAE	4	Jerry Bailey	Saeed bin Suroor	Godolphin Racing	2:01.18
2001	Captain Steve	US	US	US	4	Jerry Bailey	Bob Baffert	Michael E. Pegram	2:00.47
2000	Dubai Millennium	GB	UAE	UAE	4	Frankie Dettori	Saeed bin Suroor	Godolphin Racing	1:59.50

For a full list of Dubai World Cup winners you can read about them on Wikipedia's site.