Horse racing

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A Day at the Races

Yesterday, May 1, was Labour Day here, as in much of the world outside North America. It’s a holiday, and pretty much everything is closed.

However, it’s also the day they hold the Gran Premio Republica Argentina horse race and a few of us decided to go. We were blessed with one of those beautiful summer days that sometimes interrupt fall, so that was a bonus.

There was also a street food fair in the grounds of the Hipodromo, so we managed to have some tasty lunch between races. You don’t pay to get into the horse racing here, which makes it an even more attractive day out.

Here are just a few photos of our afternoon.

The horses strut their stuff in the paddock before going out to the track for the race.

The view from our seat on the steps, where you get a better view of the race than down at track level.

The Winner’s Circle!

There was also a feature on sustainable hats — not sure what that actually means, but they were fun. Here some lovely young women show them off.

Having a seat after the exhausting activity of watching the races!

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Unexpected Night at the Races

I went with a couple of friends to an annual event called the International Food Fair, but it turned out to be much more!

It’s basically a collection of food trucks, featuring food from many different countries. It was held at the Hipodromo de Buenos Aires, where they race horses and also play polo. The food fair was great. I’ll put photos here of some of the trucks. Very colourful, with several different types of music blaring at the same time, drowning each other out!

I ate Argentina food — empanadas made from Patagonian lamb. Linda had arepas from Colombia, which were different from the Venezuelan ones I had in Toronto, and Pat just had some kind of corn chips. And of course we washed it all down with a glass of Malbec!

Then we all had ice cream, made on the spot using liquid nitrogen, which was excellent. The flavours were amazing, and I ate wood! Yes, you read that right — wood. There is apparently only one tree in Argentina (maybe she said the world, I can’t remember) that you can actually eat, so we had to try it. It was cut into small cubes and soaked in something sweet — quite nice actually.

It was a lovely warm night, perfect for wandering and eating. Here are some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I knew the Hipodromo was a horsey place, but I assumed the food trucks would be in a separate part of the venue. But no! As we were coming in we saw the horses being walked around the paddock. Then as we were eating our ice cream, we wandered around a corner and we were actually in the track area. We stood right up at the fence and watched a race — and it didn’t cost a penny! Gotta love Buenos Aires! Here are some photos and a short video. The third photo is a fantastic piece of sculpture right beside the track area.