This article is within the scope of WikiProject Horse racing, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Horse racing on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Horse racingWikipedia:WikiProject Horse racingTemplate:WikiProject Horse racingHorse racing articles
The Everest is within the scope of WikiProject Australia, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Australia and Australia-related topics. If you would like to participate, visit the project page.AustraliaWikipedia:WikiProject AustraliaTemplate:WikiProject AustraliaAustralia articles
I think wikipedia has a problem with world's richest horse races on turf, dirt , country etc. There is no single authority cited for such statements althought the blue book published by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities could be a useful starting point but not all rich races are currently graded (eg quite a few in Australia, The Everest is not graded. Claims are often self serving with manipulation of forex rates rates among the sins committed by fans.
The best measure I have been able to come up with is the amount of the first prize given some major races might only pay prizemoney down to fourth (eg Kentucky Derby) and other races give every runner what amounts to an appearance fee. (As an aside my research suggests that in the 19th century it was not uncommon for a winner take all approach which gradually moved to about 10% for second and refund of entry fees (or stakes) for third. France may well have been the first to make regular payments to third and later to fourth. France is also still notable for the payment of owner and breeder premiums in addition to prizemoney. Ksar (FR) 1918 earned a considerable sum in breeder premiums.) In measuring the richest races I would exlude owner / breeder premiums, small stake amounts (eg Japan) and bonuses are they are not certain. But I would include them in horse eanings as Japan, Australia and USA do because it should be about the amount the horse earns not, eg, what the owner breeder, vendor or lessee earns individually (racingpost.com generally excludes such amounts whereas francegalop.com itemises each category). As a further aside I note the racingpost.com generally reports a lower first prize for races in Ireland in euros than does the official Ireland horse racing website, Horse Racing Ireland (hri.ie).
Below is a table showing races where first prize is at least USD 1,000,000 (AUD 1,508,296) (forex rates at 30 June 2023) (excludes possible breeders / owners premiums, incidental stakes and bonuses)
I have found 60 races that exceed the USD first prize minimum of USD 1,000,000 that have been run in 2023 or are known to be programmed to run up to April 2024. Where race increases have been announced but first prize is uncertain or 'TBA' I have set the first prize at the proportion of the previous years race first prize / total prize. Forex rates are those at 30 June 2023 (broadly the mid point of the northern hemisphere 2023 racing year) taken from the Reserve Bank of Australia website (rba.gov.au).
The 60 comprise 2 from Saudi Arabia (including worlds richest race the Saudi Cup), 4 from Dubai, 20 from Australia, 14 from Japan, 10 from USA, 1 from France, 8 from Hong Kong and 1 from UK (Epsom Derby).
With first prizemoney between USD 900,000 or more (AUD 1,357,466) and USD 1,000,000 I have found another 2 from USA, 1 from France, 1 from UK (Champion Stakes), 1 from Japan, 7 from Hong Kong and 4 from Saudi Arabia. The King George and QE II Stakes (UK) first prize is below USD 900,000
US, UK and France prizemoney has been static for a number of years while Japan, Hong and Australia have had significant increases.
Of the 60 listed below, the few races run on dirt have '(dirt)' appearing after the racename, all others being run on grass/turf: