A day at the races

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Yesterday I wanted to try new camera lens borrowed from a friend, and went to photograph the races at our local racetrack. I haven’t been there for years, mostly because I felt sorry for the horses. But on the other hand, there is a lot of good things going on there, too.

This is a rather small, “low budget” racetrack, unknown to many citizens who are not “horse people”. And there was no crowd yesterday. Horses racing there are warmbloods (malopolski, arabian and thoroughbred crosses), purebred arabians and trotters (recently). There are no thoroughbreds.

It was a good day for photos, with weather changing very often - some races were in the rain, some in the sun. It was difficult when it got darker but many times the light was very interesting. I saw a trot race for the first time and it was incredible how much equipment is wrapped around these creatures. They made a false start and had to run again, but drivers had trouble with stopping them, so in fact many horses ran the distance twice. A few of them were completely exhausted.

There was also one race for arabian horses, which were beautiful - my favourite was a light grey filly D?akarta. Poland is famous for beautiful arabians, especially from big stud farms like Jan

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You’re quite talented - the photos turned out great.  It’s interesting to see the photos from your local track - quite different than our “local track” before it shut down a year or two ago.  My state bans racing, so we had to cross over into Kansas for the track.  They had thoroughbred and quarter horse racing, as well as greyhound and “weiner dog” (dachshund) races.

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I used to be a groom for harness racers back in the late 80s , they are amazing horses and yes there is a lot of equipment on them but even more on the pacers to keep them in gate so they don’t break stride.

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This is some gorgeous photography. That Linaria filly has huge ears!

I used to work at a pacer breeding stable. I never got to see a race, but seeing those mares move across the paddock was amazing. It was interesting to me how they moved like that on their free will after so many years of training. I rarely saw the mares canter.

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Thanks for the replies :slight_smile: now I’ve been on a short trip to Bornholm which also has a very little racetrack, dedicated only to trotters. It’s only 500m long - looks really small. I saw there 3 trotters training, and I have one photo by now (there is more but I would need to edit them). It was a black filly which kept spooking and cantering, the driver had some trouble with her. She had a thick bandage on her right front and nothing on the left - so probably an injury.