The start of the season on Easter Sunday at the Hoppegarten site brings together equestrians and betting enthusiasts. The atmosphere is as important as the race.
Hoppegarten Racecourse on Easter Sunday. Start of the season with pretty decent weather.Benjamin Pritzkuleit
It’s a costume party, a gaming event and a family outing: many Berliners made a traditional pilgrimage on Easter Sunday. Hoppegarten Racecourseto pay tribute to the horse sport at the beginning of the season. And the special atmosphere of the day.
Well-filled champagne glasses or orange-colored aperitifs are essential this year. Kisses on the left, kisses on the right, a charming greeting should not be missing, especially among the festively dressed, “Ascot vibes”, said the younger ones. The ladies come with the appropriate hat or fascinator, others put flowers in their hair, no one wants the everyday here today, it’s the beginning of the season and a special day at the Berlin Hippodrome too. Gentlemen wear Panama hats, sweater vests and stylish sunglasses.
He is not lazy at all
Jonah, Benjamin and Johannes, all 23, embody the modern dandy these days. They have already thought about their outfits in advance, they have put their clothes in order the night before, and then they appeared very elegantly in front of the door of the Hoppegarten racecourse with a bottle of champagne in their hands and a cigarette in the corner of their mouth. “Actually, we are not as lazy as we look,” say the young people of Berlin.
Important: appropriate style and accessories, ie hat, betting slip and a drink. Benjamin Pritzkuleit
They are more than just having fun. This also includes the stylish clothes of this day. Each of the three friends put 50 euros in the pot as a bet, and they want to share the winnings as brothers. For an elderly gentleman waiting in front of the entrance, however, it seems like a race against time. The person on the phone means the voice hastily: “Can you bring me another Fuffi?”
A little bit of Ascot and a lot of West Berlin: guests with dogs and hats.Benjamin Pritzkuleit
Despite the temperature in the single digits, Berliners go to the race on Sunday morning. They come on motorbikes, bicycles, mostly on foot, some with prams and picnic baskets. In total, in addition to ten horse races, the organizers offer a family-friendly program with a bouncy castle, mini-carousel and food trucks to coincide with Easter. The Hastetöne Wind Orchestra from Berlin provides musical accompaniment behind the stands.
The smartest horses ever
“Music” is then included in the individual races. The Birkenstein award will take place at 12:20 p.m. Kerstin Marten, with binoculars, and her daughter Franziska are behind the security fence on the lawn. They came from Schwerin. Marten himself used to ride horses, but only farm races, as he emphasizes with a smile. “I am interested in the horses of the breed here, they are the most intelligent horses,” says Marten. He also wants to bet today, for the next races, because the horse Salvina and the rider Rene Piechulek have just won the Birkenstein prize at a distance of 2000 meters.
One of the most valuable prizes at the beginning of the season is the Lünzen & Friends kennel prize. A total of 25,000 euros will be distributed here. Jonah, Benjamin and Johannes bet 20 euros against Möwe. The five-year-old mare, whose co-owner is actor Florian Martens, is being trained by Roland Dzubasz at the Hoppegarten premises. Although the horse Nano Nagle with rider Pierre Bazire won in the mare race category, Dastan Sabatbekov took third place with Möwe.
An event with a traditional character: in the east of the capital is the Hoppegarten racetrack, founded in 1868.Benjamin Pritzkuleit
For Jonah, Benjamin and Johannes, this means at least doubling the €20 bet. “Now, I bet on the horses whose names I think are the hottest”, says Benjamin. Then on Easter Sunday, four-time champion jockey Eduardo Pedroza and youngster Panjari would surprisingly win the Dahlwitz prize, the second race with a prize of 25,000 euros. Surprisingly, the favorite at the distance of 2000 meters was Best of Lips with the rider Martin Seidl.
Whether or not Jonah, Benjamin and Johannes came up with such an unusual name for Panjari that they bet all their money on it, they don’t say. During the break between races, they met another group of young people with cigars in their mouths and went to one of the stands. One of the new arrivals, already on the point of half-jumping, explained the attraction of horse racing: “We just wanted to see how many people are here and capture the atmosphere”. Ascot atmosphere, in fact.