They shoot horses, don't they?
Horse breeding is a noble tradition in Poland that stretches back centuries and likewise so is the sport of horse racing. But, sadly, it's a tradition that's been slowing dying for the past couple of decades and with declining numbers now attending race days, Warsaw's Sluzewiec race track recently filed for bankruptcy. "For all the big races, 40,000 people used to turn up," said Artur Jednaszewski, marketing director at the Sluzewiec Horse-Racing Track. "Now, we have about 20,000-25,000."
Warsaw's first horse race was held in 1777, apparently a sensational event in which a mare belonging to Polish aristocrat Kazimierz Rzewuski beat a horse that was owned by a visiting English envoy. England was the superpower of horse racing in those days, so the win caused a huge stir around the city.
Sluzewiec race track opened on June 3, 1939, just in time to be closed down for World War II. But it was built far enough from the city center to avoid any damage, so it still has its original architecture.
The communists reopened the track in the 1940s and for a long time it was the only form of approved gambling in the country. Track events peaked during the sport's golden age in the 1970s.
"Apart from the national lottery it was the only form of gambling," Jednaszewski said. People have a much wider choice of entertainment nowadays, he added forlornly.
Totalizator Sportowy, which runs the national lottery, bought Sluzewiec early last year and paid off all debts. But with losses mounting, the lottery is now reported to be trying to withdraw from the deal.
But horseracing fans shouldn't pack up their jodhpurs just yet. Come rain or shine, racing will still take place regardless of who owns the track, according to Piotr Staron, a financial specialist at Totalizator Sportowy. "The Agricultural Development Agency has an obligation to organize races, and even if Sluzewiec goes bankrupt, races will be still held," he said.
