The Mystique of Club Hipico de Santiago

The Mystique of Club Hipico de Santiago

By Michael Lee
The Daily Dash
October 17, 2023

Club Hípico de Santiago is a thoroughbred horse race track in Santiago, Chile. The Club Hípico de Santiago, opened in 1870, is Chile's oldest racetrack and home to South America's oldest stakes race, the Clásico El Ensayo. It is one of Chile's three main tracks, the others being Hipodromo Chile and Valparaiso Sporting Club. Club Hípico features a wide right-handed turf course, approximately 2400 m (12 furlongs) long, and is landscaped with gardens, fountains and ponds.

Apart from the horse racing activity, the venue is also used for concerts, due to the large audience that can attend them and the fact that for some time it was the only venue in Santiago that could hold over 30,000 people for a concert (Estadio Nacional was closed for repair and reopened in September 2010). The Vive Latino festival was held in Chile for the first time on April 15, 2007, attracting over 30,000 people because of the diversity of artists that performed, as three stages were built up and being used at the same time. British band Keane finished the concert with 18,000 people still at the venue though their performance started at 11:30 p.m. La Cumbre Del Rock Chileno, which is an annual festival that gathers over 50 Chilean acts was held at Club Hípico on January 11, 2009. Bands and artists who have performed successful concerts include Iron Maiden (65.000 people, the highest concert attendance so far) and Jonas Brothers. Each of those bands attracted nearly 40,000 people to their shows. Depeche Mode performed an almost sold-out concert on October 15, 2009 as part of their Tour of the Universe world tour, attracting nearly 50,000 people, as well as Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, who performed on October 11, 2009. Metallica performed a concert on January 26, 2010 as part of their World Magnetic Tour, attracting more than 55,000 followers of the band, which is said to be the concert with the largest attendance at the venue after Iron Maiden. Linkin Park played here for the first time ever in Chile on October 9, 2010 attracting more than 45,000 people.

Live racing takes place every Friday, every other Monday and on some Sundays. Racedays are extremely long by International standards, usually featuring around 18 races per card.