CHILIVANI. Sardinian horse racing is back on the track and is preparing to relive the spectacle offered by horse racing in its entirety, even with the facilities open to 100 per 100 capacity, after two complicated years by the Covid pandemic. 2022 will see a gradual return to normality and the entire Sardinian sector will benefit from it.
The 96th season of gallop racing will start on Friday 8 April at Don Deodato Meloni, which coincides with the 101st birthday of the Chilivani Hippodrome. The testimonial remains the horse with its positive values of sport, tradition, culture, passion and nature.
All supported by the immense passion of breeders and owners, always present and always ready to invest in stallions or purchases of foals and mares despite a national horse racing adrift, without protection. Then veterinarians, craftsmen, coaches, jockeys: it’s a whole world that’s back on track, and it’s a world that moves important figures. In Sardinia, the desire of owners and breeders to still be protagonists in this magical world remains the basis for the long-awaited recovery. This is based on the induced activity that generates the world of the island gallop which in 2022 will see a significant increase in foals in training.
It starts with the spring meeting, structured over 9 days on a weekly basis that will unfold over a little over two months. Dates: in April Friday 8, Saturday 16, Saturday 23. In May, Friday 6, 13, 20 and 27; in June Saturday 4 and Sunday 12. The number of horses in training is around 380 units, of which over 60% is represented by the foals close to their debut. Among the latter there are 110 registered on the first day, Anglo Arab divided in turn by background and thoroughbred Arabs. The rehearsals reserved for beginners will be a source of great curiosity for the spring program. Friday, therefore, the opening day, and the grand finale of Sunday 12 June will be the highlight of the meeting with the dispute of the Internationals.
The first conference of the year will see the debut of the English bottom, Arab bottom and Arab thoroughbred male foals, while the second day will be pink with the debut of the females. The new generation of English thoroughbreds will instead take to the track on Friday 6 May. Examining a few numbers, it is clear that there are about 150 Anglo Arab foals in preparation for the new season, two thirds of which are fully qualified English, with a very slight majority made up of males, for a total that exceeds 100 effective. A figure due to the boundless passion of Sardinian breeders, encouraged 4 years ago by the then new stallioner proposals of Suteki, Hasawood de Bordes, Tornando de Mores and above all Vintinoe.
The discordant note comes from the Arab fund front, a category penalized by an almost non-existent programming for subjects aged 4 and up, even nothing for 2022. The slightly less than 40 Arab fund foals in training this year are the logic consequence of a lack of foresight of those who had to protect the historic pride of the island breeding breed. An obviously wrong system, the son of a skimpy prize money liquidated by Mipaaf. Consequently, the funds promoted by the Region in support of horse racing activities become the lifeblood for running the three Sardinian racecourses. Basically if you have 100 to spend, always with 100 you have to plan and run the races regardless of the number of horses in training, which in Sardinia are divided into 3 distinct categories well separated from each other: Anglo Arab, Arab thoroughbred and English thoroughbred.
There is an increase in English thoroughbred foals, many purchased in Ireland last autumn, where several unions have moved and have focused on the quality of foreign bloodlines with significant investments. A good number of horses is guaranteed by the San Giuliano stable, which from this year launches the challenge with its own breeding and will try to reap the benefits with many of its own homebreds on the track this year. The numbers of Arabian thoroughbreds remain on the standards of previous seasons, with the difference that many farms have invested in the semen of international level stallions, focusing on the lines descending from the progenitor Amer with the various Divamer and Nizam, followed by Lahoob and Zaeem. Also in this case these are important investments, made with the aim of having that change of gear which on paper should reduce the gap with the lines imported into Italy in recent years. This too promises to be a great breeding challenge.