Emirates sponsors Super Saturday race meeting

Emirates Airline has confirmed it will be sponsoring the eight-card 'Super Saturday' race meeting in Dubai tomorrow (March 9th).We are undoubtedly getting towards the business end of the horse racing season, with exciting events taking place in the UK and Dubai in the next few weeks.Although Britain has the Cheltenham Festival and Grand National coming up in the next month or so, the Dubai World Cup - which goes ahead on March 30th - is still the richest and most prestigious meeting on the planet.The Super Saturday card contains six high-standard group races and it is seen as an ideal warm-up for the World Cup."This is well-known as a precursor to the Dubai World Cup and gives race-goers the opportunity to see some of the horses that will be running during the world's richest race meeting on March 30th," commented Sheikh Majid Al Mualla, Emirates' senior vice president of commercial operations in the Gulf, Middle East and Iran.Emirates has built up a strong partnership with the Meydan Racecourse and it will also endorse the Group 1 $10 million Dubai World Cup race.Chairman of the Meydan Racing Committee Malih Al Basti believes the airline has had a major hand in establishing the Super Saturday card and Dubai World Cup meeting as two of the best sporting events on the planet."The airline ... has always demonstrated a far-sighted approach to the development of horse racing," he remarked.Dubai has only emerged as a global racing hub in the past couple of decades and the sport has been helped by some hefty investment from all over the world.The emirate did not host its first meeting until 1981 and this was a distinctly low-key affair staged on a dusty old camel track.Now, the Meydan Racecourse is packed out with 60,000 spectators during the World Cup Carnival and some of the biggest names in the business will bring their steeds to the UAE this month.