Brighton Racecourse

This is Brighton Racecourse in Brighton, in southern England, and it is definitely WEIRD!! It is similar to Epsom in that both are U shaped one-way tracks. This one has a very steep (it goes up by 7 metres) uphill straight, it has a road crossing over at 1200m (no, I´m not kidding, it is paved), and 1400 and 2000m chutes. There is also another cross-over (this time, a dirt road) at 1850m mark. It´s overall length is a little over 2400m. I left the big A marking the grandstand just in case you had a hard time locating the track :D


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Galopprennbahn Bremen

Finishing my tour through Germany, I post Bremen´s racetrack, a clockwise triangular turf track of 1850m, with a 1550m chute in the backstretch. It also has a 1750m inner turf track, and then all sorts of tracks going through the infield, which apparently is used for steeplechase races.

Oh, and also, here you can see some pictures of the track:

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A racetrack in Berlin

I couldn´t get the name, but there is a similar one to the north-east. It is a 1200m oval running clockwise, with 320m straights, and it seems that there are two distinct surfaces, one on the inside and one on the outside. Also there is an inner track too. It is curious that neither this one nor the other I saw in Berlin have chutes.


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Galopprennbahn Bremen

Continuing my virtual journey through Germany, this is Bremen Racetrack, it is almost rectangular in shape, with very long straights (they are about 650m long), no chutes at all and an inner Steeplechase track (with some tracks crossing the infield). The track is 2010m long, runs clockwise, and measures almost 1600m from the wire at the top of the backstretch and less than 1000m when they are entering the far turn. Maybe they start 1800m races from the middle of the "turn" (it isn´t much of a turn, more like a little straight). All in all, pretty unique.


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Galopprennbahn Frankfurt-Niederrad

Ok, this is in Germany, in Frankfurt, it is a triangular-shaped racetrack, with both a main turf course (1700m) and an inner turf course (1600m), running counter-clockwise. The main course also has a 1600m chute off the clubhouse turn. Very functional, they can have races for most distances between 1000m and 2400m


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Hipodromo Dos Hermanas

This is located in Sevilla, in south Spain, and it is home to that country´s winter racing meetings. It has a main turf track measuring exactly 2000 metres, with a 1000m chute off the top of the straight, a 1600m opposite straight chute and a 90º chute for 1800m races in the clubhouse turn. It also has two inner dirt tracks (one measuring 1880m and the other 1600m) and an inner turf course. Notice how elongated the turns are!


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Ippodromo Capannelle

This is Rome´s main racetrack. Located south-east from Rome, it has a 2650m main turf track, with a 1200 straight course. The track has two different turns, the shortest one takes 500m from the overall length. It also has an opposite straight chute for 2300 m (1800 m. using the shortest turn). It also has a chute that opens up from the main track in the opposite straight (so horses have to turn left and then right) for 2400m races (using the longest turn). There is an inner All-Weather track and inside that one a steeplechase track (with an 8 configuration). Pretty interesting overall!

EDIT: Also, look to the south-east, that´s a BIG training track!


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Epsom Downs

One of the most traditional European racecourses, this is a one-way track that zig-zags through english contryside. Obviously it´s distintive is that horses can´t "go around" it and once they are past the finish line they have a small "curl" where they stop and that´s all. There is a 5 furlong straight, 6f and 7f chutes, and then the main track, which has a maximun length of a mile and a half (around 2400m).


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Ippodromo San Siro (Milan)

This is a large turf oval in Milan, Italy. It has 2 turns at each end of the track, so in theory there are 4 different ovals in there. The big one measures 2800m and the small one just over 2000m. The stretch is on the lower side of the image, and the finish line is just where the first turn starts, in front of the grandstand. I found this video of a 2400m race. The chute that starts in the lower right side of the image measures just over 1000m. The strange thing is that there is also a chute on the other end of the stretch.. I wonder if they also run left-handed races there? Also, you can see that there is a steeplechase track on the inside.


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Just to the south there is a smaller oval used for trotters, and you can also see Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (formerly also known as San Siro) where both Milan football teams play.