From Beaches to Mountains: Unique Horse Racing Venues Across The World By irishracing.com newsHorse racing has taken place in many forms over thousands of years and across many different cultures. As such, everyone has a different way of doing things and there are some weird and wonderful racecourses in different parts of the world. In Britain and Ireland the most unusual racecourse we’re used to is Laytown’s annual meeting on the beach, where the temporary facilities are put up just for one day of racing. However, there are some even more unique racecourses in other parts of the world and we’re going to take a look at some here. We’ve included Australia’s outback racecourse, mudflat racing in Germany and the Litang Horse Festival in Tibet. Mauritius’ Champs de Mars racecourse also makes the list, as well as Brazil’s Hipodromo da Gavea. Litang - Tibet Litang is in the Sichuan Province of Tibet and it’s the location of an annual horse festival which has a history going back 400 years. The town itself is very unique as it’s one of the highest in the world, at an altitude of over 4,000 metres. Taking place every August, the Litang Horse Festival has a wide variety of events and some of equine ones involve pony racing, with speed and endurance events, as well as daring feats performed by riders on horses travelling at full speed. Champs de Mars - Mauritius Champs de Mars is the second oldest racecourse in the southern hemisphere and racing began taking place there back in 1812. Horse racing is the most popular sport amongst the natives on Mauritius and that is in large part due to Champs de Mars’ historic significance. The season starts in March and ends in early December and attracts large crowds of up to 10,000 people every raceday. Located in the capital city of Port Louis, it has to be a bucket list contender for racing fans across the world. Hipodromo da Gavea - Brazil Rio de Janeiro’s Hipodromo da Gavea opened in 1926 and it’s Brazil’s premier racecourse, as well as being the largest. Occupying an area of 643,000 square metres, it extends across five different neighbourhoods within the city. Interestingly, it was designed to be a replica of Longchamp racecourse, before the French track was renovated a few years ago. The Grande Premio Brasil is held here every year and it’s also the base of the Jockey Club Brasilio. Broome - Australia Located on the western coast of Australia, Broome racecourse is a picturesque track carved out of bushland close to the famous Cable Beach. It’s a couple of kilometres north of Perth, Western Australia and the Broome Cup, which takes place every August, is the highlight of the calendar. The surface is an unique oil-based dirt track which gives the surface an unusually dark appearance, which is different to any other in the north-west of the country. Duhnen - Germany While racing at Duhnen in Germany shares some similarities with Laytown, it is almost entirely unique. The action takes place on North Sea mudflats when the tide is out and they go around a 1.2km oval track in horse-drawn carts. Dating back as far as 1902, it’s considered as the only seabed racecourse and the racing attracts tens of thousands of spectators each year.
