Kortebaan is a 300 meter sprintrace between two horses with a 'sulky' (the cart) and their driver. Kortebaan can be translated as shorttrack. The best thing is the Kortebaan takes place right in the streets; wich makes it an amazing sight to watch. I don't think you can find this anywhere else in the world. The pictures in this blog are taken at the Kortebaandraverij in Wognum, the Netherlands.
Holland knows 28 Kortebaan events, mostly in the province of North-Holland.
How does it work?
The Kortebaan is a very spectaculair part of horseracing. The horses get up to speeds of 60 km/h through the Dutch streets.
Kortebaan works as a knock-out championship. Every event starts with 24 or 28 horses. Every race is a one to one race with a best of 3 system. So if one horse wins 2 out of 3 races it gets through to the next round. At a 24 horse event, 2nd round contains 12 horses, 3rd round 6 and so on. Untill there is a winner.
The distance
The horses start at a standard distance of 275 or 300 meters, depending on the lenght of the streets. When a horse has won more than € 12.000,- prizemoney in Kortebaan, the horse gets a 5 meter handicap.
Trotting
Draverij is a Dutch word for trotting. As the title says, it's Kortebaandraverij, so the horses have to be trotting during the race. When they gallop, their race is over and the other horse wins.
The start
The start at Kortebaan is very spectaculair. Before taking off the horses make a 180 degrees turn. This makes it quite difficult too, since the horses have to cross eachother. A good start can make you win or lose the race.
Betting
If there's horseracing, there's betting. You can bet at all kind of different games. From who you think will be the winner of the Kortebaan to every race's winner. There's some good money going around on these days. But, I can tell: it's hard to win!
If you want to know more or have any interesting info about horseracing, just reply!:)