Iffezheim Racecourse
The Iffezheim racecourse is a horse racing track in Iffezheim near Baden-Baden . It is the venue for horse racing events such as the Big Week in late summer, the spring meeting and the Sales & Racing Festival in October. The most important individual race is the Baden Grand Prix within the Great Week, which has been held since the track was founded in 1858 and was at times one of the most important horse races in the world. The racing weeks are glamorous events in Baden-Baden's social life and attract an international audience. Attached to the racetrack is a large training center for horse racing and a horse clinic. The Baden-Badener Auktionsgesellschaft (BBAG) eV holds auctions for English thoroughbreds several times a year in its own auction hall .
history
Start of the Iffezheim horse race
Edouard Bénazet , the operator of the Baden-Badener Spielbank and son of Jacques Bénazet , who was dubbed the “Roi de Bade” , planned the organization of horse races as a further attraction for the health resort Baden-Baden. On February 16, 1858, the lease agreement for the "In der Bey" and "Im Weichen" sites was signed between the mayor of Iffezheim, Severin Schäfer and Emil Du Pressoir ("Le duc du Zéro"), the authorized representative and nephew of Edouard Bénazets.
On the site of a dry arm of the Rhine on the northeastern outskirts of Iffezheim, Bénazet had three grandstands and other buildings built for 300,000 francs . Since the Prussian Jockey Club graced itself, the French Jockey Club stepped in and took over the management of the races. The mare Amazone won the first of the races held from summer 1858 - she was the only starter and completed the race in the so-called walk over .
Foundation of the International Club
The aggravated chauvinism caused by the Franco-German War ended the French era in Baden-Baden. Du Pressoir, meanwhile acting as spa director, was initially able to continue to organize the races in 1871 and 1872 with the help of leading personalities in German racing. Due to the closure of the casinos by the North German Federation on July 1, 1867, by 1870 at the latest, the roulette wheels of the Baden-Baden casino stood still from October 31, 1872, after a two-year grace period. In 1872, 120,000 francs from casino funds were offered as racing prizes for the last time. The races in Iffezheim were deprived of their financial basis when the game was over.
The race-riding editor-in-chief of the turf newspaper "Sporn", Fedor André, managed to win over an illustrious group of like-minded people to continue the races. Prince Carl Egon of Fürstenberg , Friedrich Landgrave of Hesse, the Duke of Hamilton, Prince Hugo of Hohenlohe-Öhringen , Prince Nikolaus von Gagarin , Prince Menshikov, Count Hugo Henckel von Donnersmarck , Count Nikolaus Esterhazy and others founded on November 26, 1872 with 300,000 Gulden initially formed the International Club as a stock corporation .
Taking advantage of a loophole in the law, they indulged their passion for gambling in the form of a circle privé and built a private casino in the Rothschild Palais in Lichtentaler Allee , which was acquired by the founding capital and built by Weinbrenner and once served Queen Friederike of Sweden . The founding fathers and their successors maintained the demands and expectations of the high society of the time in Baden-Baden. Without them, the “summer capital” would have sunk into insignificance. On December 21, 1872, the club held its first general meeting. The club's first president was Carl Egon zu Fürstenberg, who held this office until 1884 and in honor of whom the Iffezheim Prize was renamed the “Fürstenberg Race” from 1900 onwards.
For Thursday, May 1, 1873, the International Club announced a “men's spring meeting”. This matter, which was unique until 1972, was the dress rehearsal for the races in August for the International Club. A total of 19 races with 80 starters were held on four racing days in August 1873. There were racing prizes of 89,855 marks and six honorary prizes to be won.
After the Second World War
Since the 1950s, the racing course has developed into the largest training center for horse racing in Germany. Major investments were made in infrastructure in the 1970s. In 1976, for example, the former royal box, the club grandstand and the tea house were replaced by a new grandstand. The spring meeting has been held since 1972. There has been a horse clinic at Boxendorf since 1979. In 1993 the main stand was expanded. In 2004 the Bénazet-Tribune opened as the third large grandstand and the Sales & Racing Festival took place for the first time.
After the insolvency of the International Club in 2009, Baden Racing GmbH became the leaseholder of the racecourse in June 2010 , a joint venture founded for this purpose under the leadership of Andreas Jacobs. Its majority shareholder was initially the international sports marketing agency Infront . After Andreas Jacobs had sold his Infront shares to a financial investor, Jacobs Holding AG took over the Infront share in Baden-Racing GmbH.
In addition to the horse races, open-air concerts with artists such as Plácido Domingo , Howard Carpendale or Unheilig take place on the racetrack using the grandstands .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d e Rolf Gustav Haebler: History of the city and the spa town of Baden-Baden. Volume II. Verlag Dr. Willy Schmidt, Baden-Baden 1969.
- ^ Kolping family Iffezheim (ed.): Iffezheim and his story. Horst Dürschnabel printing and publishing house, Elchesheim-Illingen 1985.
- ^ A b International Club (Ed.): International horse races Baden-Baden Iffezheim 1858-1958. Book printing and publishing house Georg Koenig, Cologne 1958.
- ↑ International Club: History. ( Memento of the original from June 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Loaded August 2002)
- ↑ International Club (ed.); Oscar Christ: 80 years of racing for the International Club. Baden-Baden 1953, DNB 978753151 .
- ↑ The casino was closed and the club was founded. Supplement to the Badische Neusten Nachrichten. Karlsruhe August 29, 1997.
- ^ The first spring meeting took place in 1873. Supplement to the Badische Neusten Nachrichten. Karlsruhe August 29, 1997.
- ^ Landesarchivdirektion Baden-Württemberg, Landkreis Rastatt and Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg (ed.): District descriptions of the state of Baden-Württemberg - The district of Rastatt. Volume 2, Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-7995-1364-7 , pp. 169 and 175.
- ↑ Baden Racing takes over Rennbahn Iffezheim and signs lease contract for 20 years ( Memento of December 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF), Baden Racing GmbH, accessed on August 25, 2010.
Coordinates: 48 ° 49 ′ 33.1 ″ N , 8 ° 8 ′ 47.5 ″ E