History of horse racing in Chișinău. The English Club, the Nobility Club and the Jockey Club

This article sets out, for the first time since the work of historian Gheorghe Bezviconi 85 years ago, a history of horse racing in Chișinău. The location of the first public horse racing track in Chișinău is identified (according to a 19th-century plan of Chisinau) and its description in Constantin Negruzzi's prose, O alergare de cai (A Horse Race), is provided. It also describes the agents who managed horse racing and and equestrian activity for more than a hundred years (1834-1944). These were the founders and members of the English Club, the Nobility Club and the Jockey Club. Throughout history, the clubs have counted as members the entire elite of Bessarabia: military, magistrates, large landowners, intellectuals, artists, doctors, lawyers, engineers and senior officials. The activities of supporting the tradition of horse racing, maintaining the quality of equestrianism and breeding horse breeds at the English Club, the Nobility Club and the Jockey Club demonstrate that the city of Chisinau has had a true elite.