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Around half past three on Sunday afternoon, a first explosion in Piazza del Campo in Siena will warn the crowd present that the first Palio of the year, that of July 2 dedicated to the Madonna di Provenzano, is about to approach. At four o’clock there will be another warning and forty minutes later the square will be closed to the public for the start of the historical procession, which will last about two hours (at about 5 pm it will start live on La7). At 19:30 the horses will finally leave the Palazzo Pubblico and will approach the start.
In the Palio, ten of the seventeen districts in which Siena is divided face each other, in turn and by draw: and this is what makes it a rare event and in many respects incomprehensible to those who do not know it enough. Each of the seventeen contrade represents a circumscribed area of the city, and between them there may be friendships and rivalries which can often affect the outcome of the race (or “career”, as it is called in Siena).
The districts that will run this year’s Palio are Aquila, Selva, Giraffa, Nicchio, Tartuca, Istrice, Torre, Onda, Drago and Chiocciola. There are two rivalries between these: the one between Onda and Torre is recognized more by the former than by the latter, while the one between Tartuca and Chiocciola is deeply felt by both sides, as can be seen from the quarrels between jockeys and the brawls which have often touched upon in the rehearsals of the days preceding the race (which we described here).
The horses were randomly assigned on Thursday and a great favorite came out of this lottery: Selva, who will race with Violenta da Clodia, the mare who won the Palio last August, also setting the track record. In addition to the favorite horse, the Selva has also hired the best jockey in business: Giovanni Atzeni known as “Tittia”, nine times winner of the Palio. The other best-rated districts are the Onda, with the horse Viso d’angelo and the jockey Carlo Sanna known as “Brigante”, and the Torre with Zio Tailcoat ridden by Giuseppe Zedde known as Gingillo. Instead, the Chiocciola is indicated as a possible surprise, with Anda and Bola and the expert jockey Jonatan Bartoletti known as “Scompiglio”.
Negotiations between jockeys before the race on 16 August 2019 (Alessandro La Rocca/LaPresse)
It is customary that when a contrada finds itself with a horse it considers to be the favourite, it tries to hire one of the best and most experienced jockeys so as not to waste the “gift” received from the draw. And to increase its chances of victory it is possible that it could promise something to the jockeys of the underdog districts, perhaps friends or neutrals, to hinder a rival or another favourite: it also depends on how much a district can spend, given that to try to win a Palio requires hundreds of thousands of euros. If, on the other hand, a contrada finds itself with a horse with little chance of winning, it could look for any possible way to ruin the Palio for a rival. The risk of surprises during the race is therefore high.
Due to bad weather in the last few days, only four races of the six planned have taken place. This may have further benefited the experienced horses. Furthermore, during the trials, no incidents of any kind occurred (with the exception of moments of tension between the contradaioli of the Chiocciola and Tartuca).
When seven in the evening, therefore, horses and jockeys – who ride “bareback”, without saddle – will enter the tuff track prepared in the square and will move up to the Costarella dei Barbieri alley for the departure . At that point the person in charge of managing and validating the start, the “mossiere”, will extract the envelope containing the result of the draw carried out previously with which the order of entry of the horses into the “canape” was established, i.e. between the two ropes that delimit the starting area.
For a horse, the order in which it enters the canape can greatly affect the start, and therefore the outcome of the race. The start takes place when the “running” horse enters the canape, i.e. the last of the draw, initially positioned outside and behind the others: sometimes this happens in a few minutes, sometimes you can wait a long time, all depending of the various situations between rival and friendly districts. Usually the running jockey decides to start the Palio when the horses of one or more rival districts are badly positioned, or when that of an allied district is in a favorable position. The Palio will then be won by the horse, with or without a jockey (in this case “shaken”), which will be the first to complete three clockwise laps of the square.
– Read also: Siena before the Palio
2023-07-02 13:43:11
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