The Horse Race Course Hoppegarten is a 430 hectares-wide race course; rich with tradition; located east of Berlin, in Hoppegarten.
On 17 May 1868, the Prussian king Wilhelm I. and Chancellor of the Reich Otto von Bismarck ceremoniously opened the race course which – up to the First World War – developed into the most important German race course as well as the center of the socio-political life of Berlin. Many times, Hoppegarten attracted up to 40,000 spectators on its race days and up to 1,500 horses were kept in the stables.
However, the race course suffered a lot under the two World Wars and the consequences of the following division of Germany. Regardless of the initially high numbers of visitors shortly after the German reunification, the race course was not able to take up on the success from the times before the First World War. Financial costs for hosting the races and maintaining the race course and stables soon exceeded the owner’s capacities, leading to the course’s insolvency in 2005.
In March 2008, funds manager Gerhard Schöningh bought the race course and initiated extensive renovations. Since 2008, the racing operations run regularly again and every year, up to ten races take place, which also attract international racing stables.
On 21 April, the racing season 2013 was successfully opened on the horse race course Hoppegarten with seven races. That sunny day, about 8,600 visitors cheered excitedly from the finishing line and the tribunes, when “Technokrat” confidently won the Price of Dahlwitz; worth 22,000 Euros; before “Waldpark”.
On Sunday, 5 May 2013, the racing season already continues, including three high class races, worth up to 52,000 Euros – the BBAG Auction Race and two Arabian horses races as part of the “H.H. Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Flat Racing Festival”. To admire the beautiful high-class Arabian thoroughbred horses on the parade ring and from the VIP lodges, diplomats and guests of honors from the Arabian region cames in to Hoppegarten.
Aside from the eight races in total visitors of the race course awaits the flair from “Thousand and One Nights” with Arabic delicacies, oriental body jewelry and many other highlights for adults and children.