It was through Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum that Teo chairman of Teo A. Khing Design Consultants submitted his proposal for the Meydan Racecourse, a project that had been brewing for the last five years, and was selected to build his largest and most challenging project to date: a 100,000-capacity horse racing complex, with hotel, restaurants, a convention centre, royal enclosure and 1.6 km long grandstand with an IMAX theatre to capture camera finishes for the races. The US$3 billion undertaking involved up to 20,000 workers who toiled round the clock in 65 degrees of heat to complete the project in 920 days. The racecourse had to be finished in time for the Dubai World Cup in 2010, where the Queen of England and other VIPs from around the world would be present.
