Bad news for Dubai could be bad for horses

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, loves horses. Many other Arab leaders love horses, too, but Sheikh Mohammed's passion is different. In fact, he owns and breeds more racehorses than anyone else in the world today. So if anything were to go wrong with his finances, it would be catastrophic to the sport.

"It is impossible to underestimate his influence on British racing," John Ryan of the British Horseracing Authority told The Wall Street Journal. "He has transformed the landscape of the sport."

In Britain alone, Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin Stables has 200 horses in training on 7,000 acres (2,800 hectares) of paddocks at Newmarket, the home of British racing. In the past two years, he has invested £150 million (€165 million) in buying 10 superior horses, which are transported to his training facilities in a custom-built 747.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum's money has helped the United Arab Emirates secure a place in the world racing scene. All his horses are trained in Dubai during the winter, while the racing carnival he established has become the world's richest series of horse races.