"Italian hippodromes are about to disappear, they can't make it anymore; budgets are very low, expenses higher than revenues, bets are down, fans decrease and the State is almost indifferent.
People prefer to bet on football, tennis, basketball, the sex of the next Royal Baby; they don't get excited by a mane in the wind and a sweat-drenched cloak emanating an irresistible stink.
Racetracks are abandoned: once representative of an elegant and wealthy way-of-live, these places are now sad relics, usually "infected" by mafia and camorra.
About 50.000 jobs disappeared, several racehorses end their career being illegally introduced into the food chain.
TV networks aren't covering races anymore and Varenne, the last big Italian champion, is just a regret.
When I was a little boy my grandparents and uncles used to go to the HippoDrome, on sundays: a place full of people and magic, just like the movies.
I came back to the horseraces after many years, trying to grasp their transformation through the camera: galleries almost empty, a skeleton that tries to survive, a ghost of passion and nostalgia for an era that is probably gone."







2024 © Alessandro D’Angelo
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