It is super crazy and wild, but to enthusiasts of Siena, it means everything.
This is nothing normal, yet it is competition in its purest form. Ten randomly-allocated animals, each representing one of the medieval walled city’s neighbourhoods (contradas), vie to secure local bragging rights in a frenetic, terrifying, and lawless contest, covering three 339-metre laps of the Piazza del Campo – Sienna’s central square.
Rampant bribery and corruption takes place right until the point where 60,000 spectators fall silent, awaiting the start of a cultural institution conducted amid chaotic raucousness.
The jockeys, each wearing flamboyant colours of the contrada they represent, use whips to galvanise their steeds, and inflict pain on other riders. They hit each other, barge, and whatever else, to reach the front.
Preservation of hope is vital. It can endure even after being parted, as the first horse wins, regardless of whether a jockey is still intact.
In the 2019 Palio, a narrow edge went to nine-year-old Remorex, who had lost Giovanni Atzeni – a cousin of Andrea Atzeni – at the corner where the Cappella di Piazza, an imposing marble chapel, projects out on to the track. It was the Remorex’s second riderless triumph.
The Palio has been taking place twice each summer since 1633. Its grip on the people of Sienna remains total. In summation, a passionate member simply said: “If the Palio didn’t exist, we would have to invent it.”
Another extraordinary event in Australia where the dust never settles, is at Birdsville, an outback town in Queensland. There are usually a paltry 120 residents.
For two days and three nights come September, the population swells to 8,000. They visit from all over the world to witness a Cup like no other, even considering an air full of red dust kicked up by the 12 runners making visibility extremely difficult. It is a mile handicap, but what makes it unique is a racecourse in the desert with next to no facilities.
It can take days or weeks to reach by road. Once there, transport is parked by a tree, tents are pitched, and the rest is plain primitive fun.
The literal translation of the German compound noun ‘seejagdrennen’ is sea or lake hunting race. This sounds unusual, but so is the contest that provides the standout attraction prior to Hamburg’s Deutsches Derby festival.
Very little jumping now takes place in Germany, but a small slice of what remains is made up of lake chases, in which the runners and riders must go endure as part of their mutual soggy endeavour.
Bad Harzburg and Quarkenbrück, stage lake chases but at both venues, entrants are able to simply gallop through the water.
The finest of all the seejagdrennen is Hamburg’s iconic 2.4 miler, in which the lake is so deep, horses must engage in a form of front crawl – just to navigate their way to the other side.
In 2019 the horse leading out of the lake was described by the racecourse commentator as the “bester schwimmer”.
Less nautically-minded was Sonja Daroszewski’s horse, who propelled himself head first into the wet stuff, meaning the poor jockey was left trying to remount in the water. Her perplexed and sodden partner was none other than Box Office, the former JP McManus-owned horse on whom Sir Anthony McCoy retired at Sandown.
Next up is the Anjou-Loire Challenge, world’s longest, and most unconventional.
More than 4.5 miles, there are no less than 50 obstacles, including a mound in the corner of a tight circuit which looks similar to a cliff edge, with ridges. Early on, horses charge down and then have to ascend.
There are occasions when the field disappears behind a forest, when anything can happen. A crowd that generally totals around 10,000 locals refreshed by some local brew, become really excitable when they can view the field again. There are banks, drops, ditches, water jumps, bullfinches and plenty more, to broker.
Winning it is a big deal – jockey Clement Lefebvre spent the final 200 metres saluting his packed grandstand. Simply completing the race requires monstrous bravery and effort.
