SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

• The inaugural race meeting will be again an open door event with the goal of facilitating than more Madrid’s inhabitants discover the exciting world of horse racing and which take place in such unique and emblematic place/monument of Madrid, which is regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful horse racetracks.
• The schedule of Madrid’s horse racetrack will begin this Sunday, March 5th, and will conclude on December 3rd, thus resulting in almost nine months of horse races, during which 3.5 M€ in prize money will be awarded.
• Among the Season’s novelties are new gastronomic proposals and more types of bets. Furthermore, live music, activities for children, and fashion flea markets.

The horse racing Season begins in Madrid with an inaugural doors open day so that Madrid’s inhabitants can enjoy one of the architectonical jewels in the capital, and what is better, of the spectacular horse races, the gastronomy, and the leisure activities which will take place there every Sunday. Furthermore, as every year, Hipódromo de La Zarzuela has introduced several novelties focused on improving the quality of the experience of those who visit the facilities; some of those novelties will be already available from day one, such as the new gastronomic establishments La Parrilla del Paddock or El Pulpeiro, and the two new bets, the Pick 4 and the Gemela Colocada.

The 2017 horse racing Season, which begins next Sunday, March 5th, will continue until December 3rd, and it will award a total of 3.5 M€ in prizes. A total of 217 horse races will be contested, organized in 36 race meetings which will be broadcasted live through ABC.es. And also as every year, the program will include the two horse races most awaited by public and aficionados alike; the Gran Premio de Madrid (July 2nd), which is the great race of the Spanish turf and the one with the most prize money, as it awards 102,000€ - of which 60,000€ goes to the winner - and the Día de los Campeones (October 22nd), the only race meeting in which will take place two great prizes on the same day.

Inaugural race meeting and first day of novelties

The first horse racing meeting of the 2017 Season will be next Sunday, March 5th. The horse racetrack will open its doors at 10:30 am, and at 11:30 am will begin the first of the seven races organized for the meeting. Meanwhile, in between each race, the gardens of Hipódromo de La Zarzuela will be the venue for the enjoyment of all kind of visitors: there will be gastronomy, children’s activities, and live music on offer.

The culinary enjoyment will be at the hands of the new establishments, such as La Parrilla del Paddock, whose specialty is beef, the picaña, the pork kebab, and the chorizo criollo; El Pulpeiro, which will cook its delicious octopus with potatoes; and other sites dedicated to, for instance, to desserts and to high quality coffee. Furthermore, Hipódromo de La Zarzuela will continue offering those proposals which succeeded last Season, such as Los Arroces del Lebrillo or the Food trucks.

With regard to the enjoyment linked to horse racing, this involves betting, most of which is available starting from 1€ per bet. This Season introduces two new kinds of bets. The first is the Pick 4, which consists in getting it right the winners of four races in a row, specifically, those of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th races in each race meeting. This kind of bet will be introduced to punters this Sunday with a 1,000€ rollover jackpot which will go on growing together with the money already betted, so that in case there are no winners, the jackpot for the following race meetings can become very significant. The second type of bet is Gemela Colocada, which is a very popular bet at other horse racetracks, in which for winning it is required to get it right two of the three which arrive first to the finish line in a race in which take part at least 11 horses.

Children have also available activities specially designed for them, some of which are free: pony riding, workshops, and bouncy houses. Furthermore, this Season introduces a new feature, the toy library which will be installed at the South Garden so that children can amuse themselves together with children monitors who will exclusively look after them.

The competition will end at around 3:00 pm and, from then on, the best atmosphere will move to the South Garden, where live music will start. Thus, visitors will be able to keep enjoying the Hipódromo de La Zarzuela and of its gastronomy with the sound of the 1980s and 1990s.

About Hipódromo de La Zarzuela

HIPÓDROMO DE LA ZARZUELA is part of Patrimonio Histórico Nacional, and its grandstands are regarded as one of Madrid’s twentieth Century architectural masterpieces. The horse racetracks cover a 110-hectare surface with a high ecological value and it is endowed with first-level facilities on a privileged location within the city of Madrid, which means that Madrid’s horse racing facilities constitute the most important green lung of the Spanish capital, together with the historical El Retiro Park.

HIPÓDROMO DE LA ZARZUELA belongs to Grupo SEPI, a corporate holding made up by a total of 15 state-owned companies in which it has direct, majority shareholding participations, with a workforce of more than 73,000 professionals in 2015; the Spanish state-owned television and radio corporation, Corporación Radiotelevisión Española, which is attached to SEPI, and one public foundation. Equally, SEPI has direct minority shareholdings in another nine companies, and indirect ones in more than another one hundred companies.