Getting your player ready...
The fans packed in to watch races at Baghdad’s horse track are nothing like the mint julep-drinking, hat-wearing crowd at the Kentucky Derby. Nevertheless, a group of die-hard horse lovers and gamblers meet twice a week at a track in western Baghdad to bet on and cheer their favorites. Iraq’s stables were once among the most successful in the Middle East, but a lengthy ban on international racing and a war has left the country’s racing scene in a shambles. “I would come even if tanks surround this place,” said Haidar Rabat, a butcher from Baghdad who is a regular. “We come here to forget reality.”
