Photographing Horse Racing in Dubai

Covering the Dubai Racing Carnival Horse Racing at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, UAE with the Sony A1ii and Sony A9iii

Since early 2025, I’ve had the opportunity photographing the Dubai Racing Carnival horse racing in Dubai at the iconic , Meydan Racecourse. The track venue must be one of the largest in the world, if not the largest, and the grandstand atmosphere is electric. The purses are also formidable for each of the Dubai Racing Carnival events, which culminate in the Dubai World Cup, which has the biggest payout in all of racing at over $30 million USD. 

I have been lucky enough to be shown the ropes by several long-time equestrian photographers, as well as shooters I’ve gotten to know from Getty Images here in the region. Like most sports, it’s all about where you put yourself to get the best shot, but horse racing has some unique challenges and opportunities. This past weekend in particular came with its own set of difficulties, as Iranian missiles and drones were exploding in the night sky during part of the event — but more on that later.

There are nine races in all, typically, and the following process repeats throughout the night until the last race is over.

Before each race, the horses are led out from the stables to the parade circle, where owners, jockeys, press, and VIP’s gather for a short interviews and photo-ops. These moments are best covered with a 70-200 F2.8, which I had on a Sony A9iii. The jockeys then mount up and head out to the track, for either a turf or dirt track race - which alternate throughout the evening. 

As the riders make there way through the tunnel to the (longer) dirt track, or more directly to the outside turf track, photographers can get images with the grandstand in the background, as well as “hero” shots from low angles of the horses and jockeys making there way to the track. These shots can be covered with almost any lens, depending on what you’re going for. 

James Doyle — French Duke (IRE)

Once the riders are on the track, you have about 10 minutes before the race starts to get situated along the rail. Some shooters park themselves at the finish line with a 70-200 to get the “photo-finish” (literally), while others with long lenses head down the track to the first turn and set up low to ground, beneath the rail, to get clean shots of the horses and riders as the come down the track and take the first turn. 

Meydan Racecourse — January 16, 2026

For these shots, you need a 400mm F2.8, ideally, or a 600mm F4, both of which can handle the lower light for the nighttime track, as well as providing excellent subject separation, which is critical for decent photos. The horse track has a LOT of distracting backgrounds — from support vehicles driving on the infield behind the horses, to the giant LED screens and advertising along the inside of the rail, throughout — so finding “gaps” between the signage, vehicles, and screens is important. Honestly, if you’re doing this for the first time, just pay attention to where the veterans set up. 🙂

Doug Watson — Cat's By Five (example of finding the "gap" for a clean background

I use a 300mm F2.8 with a 1.4 Teleconverter, which gives me 420mm F4, and the lens is on a Sony A1ii, which is a 50mp camera, so either punching in or cropping in post gives me over 650mm in reach, which is plenty (672mm, to be exact). Of course I’d love to have the 400mm F2.8 or 600mm F4, but since both Sony model lenses are quite old, I’ve been holding out for a newer version of either, to avoid dropping $12,000+ on a lens that might be updated in the next year. Who knows, but my current “poor-man’s” combo seems to get the job done for now, and if a 400mm F2.8 with a built in 1.4 TC comes out, I’ll snatch that up immediately. 

So, assuming you get the horses coming out of the gate and around the turn with the long lens, sometimes you’ll want to trot over to the finish line and use the 70-200mm to get the end of the race. This is when I use the A9iii and just fire away with 120 fps as they cross the line. So much is happening with the horses, jockeys, and even the vertical mirror under the finish camera (where you can get the jockey’s reflection), that it’s easy to miss the perfect “photo-finish,” so this is one situation where I feel the 120 fps is warranted. You can also create an image sequence/Quicktime movie from the 120, which makes for a cool slomo video, if you have a use for that. By the way, I don’t use subject-recognition on these shoots, but if you do, some photographers I’ve talked to focus on the horse, while others on the jockey. I’d track the jockey, but I guess it depends on who your client is. Getting both in focus at 2.8 can be tricky, so you have to pick one or the other. 

William Buick — Walk of Stars (GB)

On this particular shoot, I also tried out a “ghost filter” from Prism Lens FX , which you can see in several of the photos. I wanted to see how it affected the (many) lights around the racing, as well as whether or not I could get a trail-shutter-drag effect on the horses as they rounded the turns and crossed the finish. I used XS spot-focus placed on the one side of the filter that allows for “clean” focus, which worked pretty well, but it was tricky. The focal area and ghost effect are also dramatically altered depending on your aperture, so it was a learning experience all around. Fun, and I do like how some of the images turned out. Others were definitely overkill, though, and I had the damn thing on the 70-200 when the ruler of Dubai showed up, so that wasn’t ideal for on-the-fly portraits, but I digress. 

Ghost Filter Tilted Vertically

Another important aspect of photographing horse races are the remotes. Several of the photographers have remote cameras set up from a low angle on the ground at the inside rail after the finish line. Focus is set to the finish line using a stand-in before the races, then each camera is triggered using a Pocket Wizard, Raven, or similar remote-triggering device. While I don’t have one yet, I have ordered a Pocket Wizard III and hope to test it out in the coming weeks. These are some of the best shots you can get at a race, for obvious reasons. It still makes me nervous thinking about plunking down an A9 within a hoof’s kick, so maybe I’ll test it out a few times with an older camera until I know what to expect. On the dirt track, too, you’re looking at getting a fair amount of dust and debris on whatever lens you use, which seems to be a 70-200 for most. We’ll see. 

After the race, photos are taken in the winners circle, similar to the parade circle pre-race, and then it’s off to the media center to ingest the (locked/tagged) photos into Photo Mechanic, a quick edit in Lightroom Classic or Photoshop, then upload to whomever needs them. You’ve then got anywhere between 15-30 minutes before the next race, and the process repeats. 

Lastly, for this particular event last week in Dubai, we had the added drama of Iranian missiles and drones coming in and being intercepted in the night sky overhead, which was new, to say the least. The explosions could be seen and heard in the distance, and while none were directly overhead, it gave us some serious pause as to what the heck everyone was even still doing out there. My wife was texting me furiously and asking if I was coming back home — which I was quickly deciding seemed to be the best course of action — when I found myself standing next to H. H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, who had come out in support of the public and to celebrate the win for William Buick riding Meydaan (IRE). I got a few shots of His Highness, then got out of there anyway, unable to discern if I was in either the safest place in Dubai, or possibly one of the least. Probably the former, of course, but it seemed like a good time to make my way home. 

Until next time… 

Pat Dobbs — Nyaar (USA)