2024150 Year Anniversary of the Vienna Harness Racing Club - Set

For 150 years, the venerable Vienna Harness Racing Club has been organising harness races and exhibitions on horse breeding.

The club was founded in 1874, shortly after the international horse exhibition at the Prater during the Vienna World's Fair of 1873. The first president of the Harness Racing Club was Count Kálmán Hunyady, in whose honour a memorial race is held annually.

Initially, the races took place on the main boulevard in the Prater, but in 1878, the Krieau harness racing track was established with a sand surface and a length of 1,000 meters next to the Rotunda on the former World's Fair site in the Prater. The distinctive finish line tower dates from 1919, and like the stands, the administration and the stabling buildings, is a listed monument. The Harness Racing Club is the largest organiser of horse races in Austria; around 200 races take place on more than twenty race days a year.