THE winner of the world’s richest horse race is set to earn an astonishing £65,000 A SECOND.
The £14.3million Saudi Cup has a guaranteed £7.2million going to the first racehorse past the post.
Amazingly, that works out to £791,000 per furlong (roughly 200 metres) for these equine superstars.
Unsurprisingly, the Saudi Cup is, when you work it out for money per second, one of the most lucrative sporting events in the world.
For comparison, the Grand National, the world’s most famous race, is set to hand out around £375,000 to the winner this April.
Still a huge amount – but that is over the gruelling 4m2½f of the famed Aintree racecourse, with all the jumps that go with it.
By contrast, the Saudi Cup, held in Riyadh this Saturday, is a Flat race over just nine furlongs.
British sensation Hollie Doyle, looking to continue her amazing 2020 into this year, will take the mount of Extra Elusive in the contest and will fancy her chances of bagging top spot.
When Maximum Security won last year he did so in 1min 50secs – meaning his five owners each picked up £13,000 a second.
But how does the Saudi Cup compare to some of the richest sporting events throughout history for cash per second?
Here's what's at stake…
$20m
$10m – winner
Prize money to 10th
$91k a second – winner#TheSaudiCup | $??? | 20 Feb pic.twitter.com/d4txAYR3AF
— The Saudi Cup (@thesaudicup) February 16, 2021
Well nothing can come close to what UFC great Conor McGregor is thought to have got for needing just 13 seconds to knock out Jose Aldo in December 2015.
When you factor in the Irishman’s cut of pay-per-view shares plus his fight pay and what he got from sponsors, Forbes estimated a staggering £447,000 a second.
The Irishman is thought to have netted a total of £5.8m on the night alone.
Mike Tyson’s 91-second KO of Michael Spinks in 1988 is second on the list.
The fight – at the time the richest in boxing history – saw Iron Mike bag around £174,000 a second with the ring legend taking home £15.8m in all.
Next is Floyd Mayweather beating McGregor in their boxing bout in Las Vegas in 2017.
When pay-per-view figures and purse are all added up, top estimates said ‘Money’ took him around £128,000 a second.
Mayweather eventually saw off the MMA star in the tenth round of their crossover blockbuster, with the 50-0 boxer thought to have made an eye-watering £216m in total from the fight.
McGregor returns to round out the top five thanks to his 40-second demolition of Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone in January 2020.
Notorious was said to have pocketed around £60,000 a second for his convincing win at UFC 246, in which he saw off his rival in just 40 seconds.
McGregor boasted in the build-up that he expected to make nearly £58m in all from the fight – but we’ve used the figure published widely about what he made per second.
You might be thinking how 100m record holder Usain Bolt is not on this list, considering experts once predicted he made £5m per second during his third Olympic gold at Rio 2016.
Well, that was based on what he stood to earn over the next year from his historic treble, rather than what he pocketed on the night.
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Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sportingexcitement.com/horse-racing/champion-jockey-opens-up-on-his-sex-addiction-shame-and-using-prostitutes-as-a-form-of-punishment-for-myself
