In early August 2019, as he announced the launch of the $20m (£16.4m) Saudi Cup, the world’s most valuable race, HRH Prince Bandar bin Khalid al-Faisal, chairman of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia, made no secret of his long-term vision for racing in his country. It was, he said, “without doubt the most significant event in the history of horse racing in Saudi Arabia, and demonstrates our resolve to develop this great sport … and also our ambition to become a leading player on horse racing’s world stage.”

It was a bold statement of Saudi sporting intent of a type that has become increasingly familiar in recent years. The country has spent billions of dollars to carve out a profile in sports including football, golf, boxing, tennis and Formula One, amid widespread criticism that it is seeking to “sportswash” its human rights record. Dozens of star names, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Neymar now play for teams in the Saudi Pro League, the once upstart LIV Golf has merged with the 107-year-old PGA, and the country’s Public Investment Fund now owns 80% of Newcastle United.

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By those standards at least, the return on the country’s investment in racing could appear to be several lengths off the pace. The start of the new season at King Abdulaziz racecourse in Riyadh on 26 October will pass largely unnoticed. Even the Saudi Cup is still barely a blip on the outermost ring of the radar as far as most British racing fans are concerned, given the imminence of March’s Cheltenham Festival when it is staged in late February.

But while punters in Britain and Ireland are preoccupied with National Hunt racing in the winter months, the rest of the world is not. From a standing – and somewhat inauspicious – start in 2020, the Saudi Cup and the two-day meeting it supports has progressed from year to year, and the long-term impact on British racing could yet prove to be significant.

The world’s most valuable horse race, with no entry fees and a $10m (£8.2m) first prize for the winner, was parachuted into the international schedule in February 2020 in a world that was already heading rapidly towards lockdown. The first winner was Maximum Security, trained by Jason Servis, and a US-based winner of the debut event was, on the face of it, a significant coup for the race as it attempted to establish a presence in the international schedule.

A few weeks later, however, it proved to be anything but. While Servis took the plaudits and planned how to spend his share of the prize money, back home it soon transpired that his mobile was being tapped by the FBI, as part of an investigation into performance-enhancing drugs in the sport. Servis is now serving a four-year jail sentence and while Maximum Security did not fail a dope test either before or after his win, the first prize remains unpaid.

After its ill-starred debut, however, the three subsequent winners of the Saudi Cup have included Mishriff, from John Gosden’s yard in Newmarket, and perhaps most significantly, Panthalassa, from Japan, earlier this year.

Mishriff’s win proved that “turf” horses can win on the dirt track in Riyadh, which has received widespread praise from jockeys as being one of the best dirt surfaces in the world. The arrival of high-quality runners from Japan, meanwhile, will be seen as a clear sign that Saudi racing has arrived on the international stage.

The card on Saudi Cup day now extends to eight races for thoroughbreds, including a 15-furlong handicap worth $2.5m, substantially more than any race in the British programme. That might seem odd in a country where betting is strictly forbidden, but makes sense when you consider the increasing value of the meeting’s international betting rights. The seven races on the Saudi Cup undercard, in fact, are worth $11.5m (£9.45m), which is only a fraction less than all 35 races at Royal Ascot put together.

This will all still leave most British punters cold as the Saudi season starts on Thursday, 24 hours before the first meeting of the year at Cheltenham. The eventual impact elsewhere in the British racing programme, however, could be significant.

Elite Group One horses generally race about six times each year, and at some point, they all need a rest. If the Saudi Cup meeting becomes a new entry on the schedule for the very best horses each February, with the long-established big-money meeting at Meydan in Dubai a few weeks later, something may need to give elsewhere. Two of Japan’s biggest races, meanwhile, the Japan Cup and the Arima Kinen, are run in November and December respectively.

“Internationally, people are already being attracted by the cash,” one senior executive with long experience of the international scene says. “The Saudi Cup is already a Group One, and the track is one of the best in the world. The dirt isn’t deep, there’s very little kickback and it’s fair, so a horse like Mishriff can win on it when it’s not going to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic or in Dubai.

“In time, if you’ve got a four-year-old that’s won a Classic, you can go on that international circuit and it might almost reverse the season, to go autumn [the Arc at Longchamp and Japan], winter [in Saudi Arabia and Dubai], [Royal] Ascot [in June] and then stop. You’d miss the central part of the season [in Europe] and races like the King George [at Ascot in July] because the money isn’t there.”

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The Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia supplied written answers to questions from the Guardian about the development of its racing industry to date and its future plans.

“The purpose of the government’s investment in the Saudi Cup was to create a vehicle for positive change and development in horse racing in Saudi Arabia, while at the same time announcing our presence on the world stage,” it said.

“Similar to a number of sports in the country that are also undergoing development, horse racing is key to the overall future picture of sport in the country that aims to encourage growth, diversification, greater participation from all quarters of the Saudi community, economic progress and elite level performance starting from the grassroots and building upwards.

“Like many places that are seeking to bring about positive societal change through sport, horse racing in Saudi Arabia is on a journey. We have not reached our destination and we will continue working hard to reach new heights under the guidance of HRH Prince Bandar.”