EVENT NAME: 198th Arno Race

EVENT LOCATION: Visarno Racecourse (Cascine)

EVENT DATE: April 25, 2025

EVENT TIME: gates open at 12:30

EVENT PRICE: €5, children free

EVENT DESCRIPTION:

The Arno Race is the oldest horse race in Italy. The race was born in 1827 by the will of some English, Polish and Russian noblemen who decided to race their thoroughbreds in the large meadow of the Cascine Park a few steps from the current Visarno Racecourse - Cesare Meli. A few years later, the same visionaries, still in Florence, founded the Italian Jockey Club, officially starting Italian horse racing.

The event has spanned three centuries and two world wars and has hosted crowned heads, nobles, international politicians and cardinals of all levels. . . But above all it has enthralled thousands of spectators who, after almost two hundred years, still meet at the Hippodrome confirming the partnership between Florence and horse racing. After almost two centuries, the Florentine Hippodrome managed by the Meli family maintains a strong tradition, not without a “British” touch given by the collaboration with the Consorzio Il Cappello di Firenze and thanks to which the competition “The most beautiful hat for Corri la Vita” was born nine years ago. An event within the event, the competition, an extremely elegant challenge with veils and wide brims for the ladies and the little ones, with a very noble purpose: to raise funds for “Corri la vita”.