BERLIN – (dpa) – Once the scene of Germany’s top horse racing events, the traditional Hoppegarten course may close down for good, after the Cologne Racing Association withdrew the financially bankrupt club’s licence and cancelled all three races scheduled for the opening weeks in April.
And the track’s two biggest group races in the 2001 season are being moved to Dresden.Located on the outskirts of Berlin, Hoppegarten faced a deficit of 2.4 million marks for this year’s spring, summer and autumn meetings, after the track lost some 978,000 marks last year. The Association’s president, Jochen Borchert, had no choice but to suspend the Union Club’s licence, pending efforts to save Hoppegarten from a final demise.“But there’s still an agreement,” said Borchert, “not to give up trying to save the Hoppegarten course. Above all, the owners’ association is making efforts to work out a new concept to enable Hoppegarten to develop a sustainable future.”Still one of Europe’s most picturesque courses with its ancient chestnut trees, Hoppegarten is located on 400 hectares of grounds, making it naturally a target for developers.So far, however, Hoppegarten has survived all takeover attempts. But efforts to renovate and modernize its rundown grandstand, built during the 1920s, have come to naught, hindering further rescue attempts.And the track’s last remaining sponsor pulled out last spring.In Hoppegarten’s heyday before World War II, prominent racing stables from Britain, France, and America, all had stables located there. Some 1,500 horses were stabled, along an equal number of trainers, jockeys, apprentices, head lads, and other track personnel.But after Germany was divided, Hoppegarten, located in the German Democratic Republic, lost its allure, since the East German communist economy was hardly suitable for horse racing.And Hoppegarten’s owner, the Union Club, moved to Cologne in 1947, after the Soviet occupation authorities expropriated its vast grounds. Consequently, Germany’s biggest stables relocated in the Rhone and Rhur areas. And the most important races no longer took place in Berlin, but in Cologne, Hamburg, or Baden-Baden.When the Union Club moved back to Berlin in 1992, hopes arose that Hoppegarten could be to restored to at least part of its former glory. But to no avail. Efforts to enlist backers, well-heeled sponsors and turf Samaritans failed dismally.Last year, only 250 gallopers were stationed there, whose 20 trainers were strapped to make ends meet. The overall downslide of flat racing in Germany hardly helped Hoppegarten to emerge from the doldrums. In 2000, a total of 2,916 races took place at Germany’s thoroughbred racing courses with track betting handle totalling 244.5 million marks, down a discouraging 19.1 million marks from the 1999 meetings.Germany’s turf executives explain the economic crisis of nearly all racing clubs to the economy’s widespread unemployment, nearly four million, and the recent competition from football’s new and popular “Oddset” bet. According the Borchert, talks are continuing with the North-Rhine Westphalia government for compensation to offset track losses from Oddset betting.Clubs in Bremen, Hanover, Krefeld, Gelsenkirchen-Horst and Frankfurt, were also affected by off-course, betting facilities vai satellite transmission at Germany’s ubiquitous bookmakers. If that were not enough, new possibilities for luring punters away from the tracks include tax-free wagers placed on the Internet. Only Munich’s Riem course was on the black side last year, posting a betting turnover of 14.7 million marks from 23 racing days.In general Germany’s racing clubs are in deep economic trouble, Borchert admits.But on the bright side, German horses starting in 568 races abroad, many of them group or listed events, brought in a cool 8.2 million marks for their owners, a sign that the millions of dollars they pumped into importing top foreign bloodstock is paying off at last.
