On Saturday morning, phones across Dubai pinged with public safety alerts: potential missile threats were incoming, and people should seek immediate safety.
On the same day, the Dubai Racing Club issued a warning of a different kind: Attendees to the Dubai World Cup horse race would not be permitted to wear ripped jeans or torn clothing of any kind, 鈥渆ven if considered designer fashion.鈥�
It also offered advice: Ladies were encouraged to wear hats.
Few things better illustrated Dubai鈥檚 surreal efforts to maintain normalcy amid the Middle East war than the richest day in horse racing happening undeterred on Saturday. The event鈥檚 nine races awarded a total of $30.5 million in prize money.
Many of the Gulf States have been striving to protect their image as safe havens for leisure and luxury.
Dubai, and the United Arab Emirates as a whole, has taken it further, aided by the mostly successful interceptions of the over 2,000 Iranian attacks.
Still, at least eight civilians have been killed in the UAE, including one in Dubai, and the strikes have damaged luxury high-rises, the Fairmont The Palm hotel and the airport. On Saturday, the UAE said there had been a significant increase in attacks from Iran, adding that it had intercepted 20 ballistic missiles and 37 drones launched during the past day. Debris from an intercepted ballistic missile caused a fire in Abu Dhabi, injuring six people, the Abu Dhabi government said.
Other events, such as Art Dubai and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, have been postponed.
The Dubai Racing Club, which organizes the race, did not respond to questions about whether it considered postponing the race or about the security precautions in place.
In a statement, the club said that it 鈥渨orks closely with all relevant authorities to monitor conditions and ensure the highest standards of safety and comfort for all participants and guests.鈥�
Described by one Emirati newspaper as Dubai鈥檚 鈥渂iggest social spectacle,鈥� the Dubai World Cup has perhaps become more synonymous with style than sport in its 30th year.
Tatiana Maltseva, 40, had not seen the dress code advisory before she and her family arrived at the Meydan Racecourse. When her friend saw her dressed in a yellow sundress sans hat, she asked, 鈥淒idn鈥檛 you read the rules?鈥�
Few of the women in the affordable grandstands, where Maltseva was located, appeared to have taken the headwear advice seriously. Most of the visible hats were red Emirates airline baseball caps worn by men poring over the race booklet and filling out scorecard predictions.
Maltseva, a wedding planner who left Russia with her family three years ago because of the war with Ukraine, said her only reference point for such an event was the polo match scene from the movie 鈥淧retty Woman.鈥�
鈥淎nd people were dressed really nice,鈥� she said, making a show of looking around her at the dressed-down crowd in the grandstands. She laughed and shook her head.
Instead, that glamour was mostly in the VIP sections above, where Dubai鈥檚 ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was in attendance, or down on the grounds where judging took place for several categories of 鈥渂est dressed.鈥�
Maltseva was ready to leave after the second race, but her friends had filled out predicted results for the third race in hopes of winning prizes. So they stayed to watch the race.
As the horses and jockeys came around the final stretch, the horse that had been leading for much of the race was suddenly overtaken by the rest of the pack.
All around Maltseva men leaped from their seats, cheering and pumping their fists as Fairy Glen, owned by Dubai鈥檚 crown prince, took the lead at the final moment and won.
A bit later, near the track, Deepshika Sriram, dressed in a navy dress and a matching blue lace headpiece, looked around for the best view of the fifth race.
Sriram, a 22-year-old compliance officer, said she attended her first horse races while studying in Britain. Now back in Dubai, she was attending her first Dubai World Cup.
鈥淵ou have to fit in with the attire,鈥� she said, touching the edge of her hat. 鈥淚 feel like whatever I was wearing wouldn鈥檛 be complete if I didn鈥檛 wear a hat.鈥�
This article originally appeared in .
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