Soon after the establishment of Saudi Arabia in 1932 by King Abdulaziz, Al-Malaz Square held horse racing events for the monarch, which was his favorite sport and the locality surrounding it eventually got identified as 'Al Malaz'. After the ascension of King Saud in 1953, he initiated the relocation of government ministries from Jeddah to Riyadh and launched a housing project for the employees, thereby turning the area into an urban neighborhood between 1953 and 1957 and gradually making it hard for the sustainability of horse racing.