Horse Racing at the races

A guy carries out with an Akhal-Teke horse, a revered breed in Turkmenistan. Photo: Jason Lee/Reuters

Each week-end crowds of people gather in Turkmen capital’s opulent hippodrome to savor the nation’s favourite sport: horse-racing.

The venue is impressive. Completed in 2011 at a high price of $100m to showcase the country’s venerated type, the Akhal-Teke, spectators must walk through an entrance adorned with a big portrait of strongman president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov astride a horse.

The eccentric leader’s love the animals has-been widely trumpeted by state media. In April, the best choice awarded himself the honorific subject of “People’s Horse Breeder”, and he’s also the author of a popular tribute on type, Akhal-Teke: Our pleasure and fame.

Bikers warm up their particular ponies during the $100m Ashgabat hippodrome during Sunday mid-day events. Photograph: Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Eurasianet.org A portrait of president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov astride an Akhal-Teke horse welcomes spectators in the primary hippodrome entrance. Photograph: Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Eurasianet.org

Each Sunday afternoon the grandstand fills up fast. Horse-racing is an important family event in the united states – a chance for folks of all many years and experiences ahead together, an unusual luxury in a country where couple of size gatherings tend to be allowed, unless they are becoming held in celebration of this state and its own leaders.

The united states is generally ranked on the list of worst offenders on the planet for abusing person legal rights, and although the freedom of calm construction and connection is enshrined in constitution, the authoritarian government seriously restricts the motion of the people.

But during the races, none with this is clear. Pupils using identical tracksuits dominate leading rows. The back chairs are occupied by older viewers, nervously trading information on the jockeys. Women in red dresses and twin braids, a hairstyle typically donned by single women, are also call at power.

Leaflets containing details about the riders circulate widely on the list of spectators and although gambling is restricted, nothing associated with teenagers when you look at the stands make any key of their betting, plus the police standing view spend small heed to your experienced betters phoning on numbers, sums and brands.

Wearing the standard double braids, feminine college students, dressed up in Uzbek clothing, attend the regular rushing event. Photo: Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/EurasiaNet.org Hoping of experiencing made just the right bet, punters watch the jockeys and horses competition round the training course. Photograph: Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Eurasianet.org