Racing on the African continent?

[Treve]

Hi,
I'm trying to figure out in which African countries there is sanctioned racing (and therefore, a racetrack/course, a breeding industry and an inevitable castoff of horses needing rehoming).
South Africa I know of, naturally.
I also found Kenya and the Seychelles have jockey clubs and racetracks... any others? I also know Mauritius has racing but they don't have a breeding industry, they import their horses from South Africa (a friend of mine is from there and owns an OTTB from SAF and her grandpa is in SAF currently for one of the bloodstock sales).

[WaquoitNBroadBrush]

Morocco, but most of its racing and breeding is Arabians, not thoroughbreds. I believe there is a track at Casablanca and some thoroughbred races are run there.

And wasn't there a Zimbabwean horse that made a splash on the world scene a few years back? Any tracks/breeding operations going there now?

[Treve]

Morocco, but most of its racing and breeding is Arabians, not thoroughbreds. I believe there is a track at Casablanca and some thoroughbred races are run there.

And wasn't there a Zimbabwean horse that made a splash on the world scene a few years back? Any tracks/breeding operations going there now?

Yeah I assumed most of North Africa would be breeding/racing arabians if anything.
I did find that Lesotho enjoys thoroughbred racing as well.
I didn't think of Zimbabwe since they aren't in the greatest shape economically speaking... But according to this article they have at least one track still open.
https://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/ ... e-20170521

[Ioya Two]

Her name was Ipi Tombe. She won the Dubai Duty Free.

[Miss Woodford]

Hard to find info on the Internet for some of these (and most of it is in French), but here are the IFHA (International Fedeeration of Horseracing Authorities) member countries:
Algeria (Arabians)
Chad
Madagascar
Mauritius http://www.mauritiusturfclub.com/
Morocco http://www.sorec.ma/fr/
South Africa http://www.nhra.co.za/
Tunisia http://www.sc-hippique.tn/ Tunisian studbook and National Stud website http://fnarc.tn/

Others:
Botswana - Botswana Horse Racing Association https://www.facebook.com/BHRA2018/
Egypt - formerly held Arabian races, jockey club now dormant
Ghana - Accra Turf Club holds Thoroughbred races
Kenya http://www.jockeyclubofkenya.com/
Libya (Arabians)
Namibia - Namibian Horse Racing Association/Rehoboth Turf Club
Zimbabwe - breeding industry basically dead, remaining track is now operated by the NHRA of South Africa but is in danger of closure http://www.mashturf.co.zw/ https://zimracing.wordpress.com/

[Treve]

Thanks Miss Woodford!

[Saintly]

Wow, info on African racing is very hard to find on the net. I recall seeing two pieces on a local racing TV show. One was on Horse Chestnut who was a South African champion winning 10 of 11 starts including the South African Triple Crown (so - there must be one). From what I recall of the footage he won by big margins. Injury curtailed his career and I believe he went to stud in the USA

The other piece was on champion trainer Mike de Kock who while still based in South Africa, continues to have success all over the world, particularly in Dubai. He also trained Horse Chestnut and Ipi Tombe

Ipi Tombe was originally from Zimbabwe and moved to SA so Zimbabwe must have a racing & breeding industry. Later she was brought by Team Valor to the US. Team Valor's Barry Irwin used to post here on TBC. He was good to read. Feisty chap at times. Perhaps if you were to write to him he might have some contacts who could get you some more info to assist your project.

Felix Coetzee and Douglas Whyte were South African jockeys who had tremendous success in the competitive Hong Kong racing scene & Glyn Schofield has been successful in Australia so there's been plenty of high profile African horsemen. But it would appear the PR department for African racing is asleep at the wheel though. Anything I've found is sourced from a non African country. Perhaps they're all watching rugby !

[lurkey mclurker]

More info about Zimbabwe racing here (looks like their breeders' association is shut down/shutting down):

https://www.sportingpost.co.za/2017/07/ ... ses-doors/

That link is from the Ipi Tombe Facebook page, here: https://www.facebook.com/IpiTombeRacehorse/ which does seem to be current with news about Ipi and her offspring.

This site (run/maintained by Kirsten Wellman, who used to post here) has more info about Ipi Tombe as well but is not current: http://www.ipitombe.com/

[WaquoitNBroadBrush]

Lesotho and Namibia make sense as racing nations since both (as Basutoland and Southwest Africa) were South African protectorates at one time.

I think all of the limited number of thoroughbred racing nations in Africa have two colonizing nations in common: England and France. The Spaniards and Portuguese have never been much on racing and besides, they were mostly in Africa to plunder its resources (and people) and ship them off to Spain or Portugal or to other corners of their empires. The English and French seemed to think, "OK, we own this place. Might as well make it seem more like home while we're here."

[Miss Woodford]

Lesotho and Namibia make sense as racing nations since both (as Basutoland and Southwest Africa) were South African protectorates at one time.

I think all of the limited number of thoroughbred racing nations in Africa have two colonizing nations in common: England and France. The Spaniards and Portuguese have never been much on racing and besides, they were mostly in Africa to plunder its resources (and people) and ship them off to Spain or Portugal or to other corners of their empires. The English and French seemed to think, "OK, we own this place. Might as well make it seem more like home while we're here."

There is a tradition of native horse racing in most countries though. Wherever there are domestic horses there are horse races - humans are competitive by nature and "my horse is faster than yours" have been fighting words for thousands of years. The Europeans just introduced Thoroughbreds and a formal infrastucture.

[katmandu]

Horse Chestnut:

https://www.sportingpost.co.za/2015/02/ ... -lifetime/

[Treve]

Lesotho and Namibia make sense as racing nations since both (as Basutoland and Southwest Africa) were South African protectorates at one time.

I think all of the limited number of thoroughbred racing nations in Africa have two colonizing nations in common: England and France. The Spaniards and Portuguese have never been much on racing and besides, they were mostly in Africa to plunder its resources (and people) and ship them off to Spain or Portugal or to other corners of their empires. The English and French seemed to think, "OK, we own this place. Might as well make it seem more like home while we're here."

There is a tradition of native horse racing in most countries though. Wherever there are domestic horses there are horse races - humans are competitive by nature and "my horse is faster than yours" have been fighting words for thousands of years. The Europeans just introduced Thoroughbreds and a formal infrastucture.

Yes abslutely... my father's paternal side comes from an ethnic group known as horse people and thought to have brought horses to Western Africa even prior to the islamic conquests. The name of their people loosely translates to "people of the horse" so horses feature prominently in their culture. They let their horses roam free in their villages for those still living traditionally and have similar fantasias like the North African peoples... You can find unsanctioned racing in most places with a tradition of horses. (Although not all countries have native equestrian traditions... Benin does not for example. Burka Faso, Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon all have one or more traditionally equestrian ethnic groups on the other hand. Just really depends but there are more horses in Africa than people realize I think )

Thanks for the additional info everyone, I am indeed specifically looking for thoroughbreds!