DUBAI - Dubai’s Meydan Grandstand and Racecourse, the venue of the world’s richest horse race, will host the season’s first race tonight, UAE media reported on Thursday.

“We have done the trials and are happy with them. The future of racing will be cemented with the introduction of Meydan,” Saeed al-Tayer, chief executive officer of the Meydan project, was quoted as saying in daily Gulf News.

The racing season, known as the Dubai International Racing Carnival, culminates with the Dubai World Cup on March 27, with $10 million in prize money on offer.

The 1.6-km grandstand and racecourse cost 10-billion dirham ($2.72 billion) to build. It is expected to put some shine back on Dubai amid its rough ride through the global credit crunch, which brought its runaway construction sector to a screeching halt.

The facility, part of the huge equestrian-themed Meydan City project, is designed to host more than 60,000 spectators.

“We will not only focus on the history of racing but also the traditions of the desert and the local environment. We have been looking at how to make Meydan an all-year round attraction,” Tayer was quoted as saying in daily newspaper the National.

The paper said that since the Dubai World Cup began in 1995 it has been run on a dirt track but the new chic venue offers a synthetic all-weather course that will attract turf-trained horses.