updated 2:33 p.m. ET March 26, 2005

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - If anyone knows how much it costs to stage Saturday’s lavish Dubai World Cup horse race, they’re not saying.

The world’s richest race hands out $15.25 million in prize money alone, and costs millions more to organize, including flying in horses from Japan, the United States, South Africa and Europe.

But the Nad Al Sheba racetrack — and the United Arab Emirates — doesn’t allow betting, so there is little income to offset the millions laid out to hold the one-day, once-a-year spectacle.

Even entry and parking is free, allowing poor immigrant families to mingle among the world’s wealthy racing aficionados who’ve jetted in for the glamorous event.

Sponsors’ fees and broadcast rights recoup a portion of the costs, but most are simply paid for from the pockets of Dubai’s royal family, the Maktoums. The family, incidentally, owns the powerful Dubai-based Godolphin stable, with several horses running on the day’s seven-race card.

“It’s basically a tool to promote Dubai,” said Matt Howard, spokesman for the Dubai Racing Club.

With the race expected to reach one billion households, the Maktoum family stands to reap its dividends by pitching this beachfront sheikdom as one of the world’s hottest luxury destinations.

They might also use the race to showcase Dubai as one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities.

The crowd milling in the grandstands, clubhouses and on the lawns covered the gamut of nationalities, adorned in their finest ethnic costumes, enforced by strict dress codes demanding tasteful clothing.

Emirati men in long white dishdasha robes strolled with women in black head-to-toe chadors and copper-colored facial masks. Pakistani men in skullcaps decorated in glittering cut glass consulted their racing forms, alongside Indian women in bright, billowing saris.

Westerners in sharp suits and dresses, some in audacious hats, thronged a food pavilion, quaffing champagne and watching 24 young women compete for the best-dressed lady award.

At the other end of the grandstand, Somali men in skullcaps and white robes knelt in prayer, foreheads pressed to the grass.

“This is what you call cosmopolitan, in the true sense of the word,” said Tony Bury, an English businessman living in Dubai, surveying the crowd.

In one popular clubhouse, wealthy Westerners slurped raw oysters and munched sushi.

“We just need a small excuse to get dressed up, and you have the weather here, which is lovely,” said Cathy Walker, in a wide-brimmed fuschia hat.

Beyond the track, with a backdrop of Dubai’s glimmering modern skyscrapers, camel trainers could be seen walking their prize beasts amid the sand dunes. Camels also race at Nad Al Sheba, in another age-old tradition among Arabs.

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