DG Van Clief, the president of Breeders' Cup Ltd, today explained the decision to continue with the racemeeting, which is being held this year in New York.
American racing authorities are determined that the show must go on, despite last month's terrorist atrocities in New York and Washington.
"Doubts have gone through the mind of all of us at some point as to whether we should race," he said. "But we have remained steadfast and frankly, we thought it was very important that we did stay on track.
"The meeting will be dedicated to all those who died or who lost a loved one on September 11th."
Van Clief is hopeful that the atmosphere at the meeting will be not too different from any other year.
"Before last month I had anticipated a crowd of 50-55,000 - now I think that with some of the restrictions on travel which are in place 45,000 is a reasonable expectation," he continued. "There is a great deal of determination to get back to life as normal.
"We've been giving a lot of thought to security measures and there will be a large number of uniformed police officers, both in and around the track."
It is not yet known whether any members of Dubai's ruling Maktoum family will be attending the meeting.
"They don't talk to me about their travel plans and I haven't asked them," said racing manager Simon Crisford.