Jockey charged over Palio sabotage
Prosecution for assault in notoriously brutal Tuscan horse race prompts fury over court’s interference
IT INSPIRES fierce rivalries and accusations of intrigue and skulduggery, 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 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. Magistrates in the Tuscan city will now 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 interfere with the code of honour that has governed the race for centuries.
“He’s already been punished by the contrade [districts] for an unfair handoff. Sending him to trial is unheard of,” one local told Corriere della Sera.
“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 a 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 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, Columbu can be seen reaching across to his rival, Giovanni Atzeni, one of the race favourites. Columbu pulled Atzeni off his mount, sending him crashing to the ground, and went on to finish the race. The act of sabotage happened at the beginning of the race, which lasts just two minutes but is eagerly anticipated in Siena for months. “It’s not the first time a jockey has gone after an adversary,” said Atzeni. “But to grab me from behind, that was cowardly. That’s not in the tradition of the Palio.”
The jockeys represent Siena’s 17 districts or “contrade”, unchanged since 1729. They are named after objects and animals, including the Wolf, the Porcu- pine, the Eagle, the Tower, the Wave, the Dragon and the Goose.
Columbu was riding for the Valdimontone (Valley of the Ram) district, while Atzeni was representing their arch rivals, the Nicchio (Seashell) quarter. The race consists of three laps of the piazza, around a track covered in sand and with curves padded with mattresses. No jockey has ever died, but horses are frequently badly injured and have to be put down, with animal rights campaigners regularly calling for the event to be banned.
Rough behaviour is part and parcel of the Palio, said Fulvio Bruni, the “captain” of the Goose district.
He recalled a 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,” he said.