The Sombor Hippodrome — three centuries of horse racing

ABOUT THIS ATTRACTION

Horses made Sombor. A cavalry riding school is recorded here in 1826; in 1853 the town poured forty cartloads of sand to build a civilian riding school — the “Reitschule” — near the Calvary; and the first hippodrome existed by 1864, when a ceremonial parade’s takings (50 forints) went to the town hospital. A second track followed in 1927 on the Čonoplja road, 1,720 metres around with judge’s and public stands, where the “Race of the Town of Sombor” over 2,000 metres was the derby of its day — and where, in the interwar years, the “Riders’ Day” opened with a great procession of horsemen through the town. The third and current hippodrome dates from 1963, on the Stapar road out of town, and for over half a century the first week of August has brought the races for the “Somborske novine” cup, now joined by a parade of riders, fijakers and carriages organised by the Western Bačka horse-lovers’ association. In 2020/21 the lease was taken over by the town’s most famous son, Nikola Jokić — a lifelong harness-racing obsessive — and the grounds have been under thorough renovation since. The Serbian trotting derby, the generational race that decides every four-year-old’s career, is now decided here.