UK Edition
Outrage in Tuscany after jockey in Siena's famous Palio horse race prosecuted for yanking a rival off his mount
It inspires fierce rivalries and accusations of intrigue and skullduggery, but Siena’s famous Palio horse race has been swept up in fresh controversy over a move to prosecute a jockey for sabotaging a rival’s bid to win the centuries-old contest.
As horses thundered around Siena’s main piazza, the jockey, Massimo Columbu, lunged over at a rival and yanked him off his horse, causing him to tumble to the ground.
Columbu, whose race nickname is “Veleno” or Poison, was punished by the custodians of the Palio by being banned from 10 races.
But now magistrates in the Tuscan city have decided to prosecute him on a charge of assault. He is due to face court on Wednesday.
Many Sienese are outraged, saying that the jockey has already been punished adequately and that the judiciary has no right to mess with the code of honour that has governed the race for centuries. “He’s already been punished by the contrade for an unfair hand-off. Sending him to trial is unheard of,” one local told Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily.
“Dirty laundry should not be aired in public,” another aggrieved local said. “Imagine what would happen if you applied the same rules to football – you’d have players being hauled in front of magistrates for fouls.”
Others, however, say that the Palio needs to clean up its act and that dirty tactics should no longer be accepted. The race, which dates back to the 13th century, is an exciting but famously rough spectacle, with jockeys, who ride bareback, punching, kicking and shoving each other as they hurtle around the Piazza del Campo.
The only thing that is officially prohibited is grabbing the reins of a rival’s horse. In the past, jockeys deemed to have performed badly, or to have deliberately thrown the race by reining in their steeds, have been assaulted by their supporters, with some coming close to being lynched by the mob.
Horses have been drugged and riders ambushed by rivals before they even make it to the start of the race.
The incident happened in July last year, during the first of two Palio races that are held in Siena each summer. In video footage of the race, Columbu can be seen reaching across to his rival, Giovanni Atzeni, who had been a favourite to win the race.
Columbu pulled Atzeni off his mount, sending him crashing to the ground. The act of sabotage happened right at the beginning of the race, which lasts just two minutes but is eagerly anticipated by Siena for months.
“It’s not the first time a jockey has gone after an adversary,” said Atzeni, in the days after the race. “But to grab me from behind, that was cowardly. That’s not in the tradition of the Palio.”
The jockeys represent Siena’s different 17 districts or “contrade”, which have remained unchanged since 1729. They are named after objects and animals, including the Wolf, the Porcupine, the Eagle, the Tower, the Wave, the Dragon and the Goose.
Columbu, the jockey who is being prosecuted, was riding for the Valdimontone district, while Atzeni was representing their arch rivals, the Nicchio quarter of the city.
The race consists of three laps of the piazza, around a track covered in sand and with curves padded with mattresses to lessen injuries to horses and riders.
No jockey has ever died, but horses are frequently badly injured and have to be put down by vets, with animal rights campaigners regularly calling for the event to be banned.
Rough behaviour is part and parcel of the Palio and had been for decades, said Fulvio Bruni, the “captain” of the Goose district.
He recalled a particularly violent race in which jockeys from the Panther and Eagle districts lashed each other with their whips. “They seemed possessed by demons and they were disqualified, but at the end of the race they went back to being friends.
“I’ve seen members of rival districts confront each other furiously but then immediately stop fighting when they realised an adversary had lost his watch. Straightaway they came to their senses,” said Mr Bruni.