Video: Winner goes rope to wire to take medieval race in Italy

Carrying the orange and black colors of the Lupa district, 7-year-old gelding Benitos took the lead in the first five strides and maintained his advantage for all three laps inside the Piazza del Campo to win Saturday’s rain-delayed Palio di Siena, the medieval, bareback horse race that is run twice each summer in Tuscany, Italy.

Jockey Dino Pes, who uses the name Velluto in competition, was a first-time winner in the wild race that goes around a temporary clay track inside a cramped town square packed with an estimated 40,000 spectators. Benitos was a first-time runner in the Palio, which goes about five furlongs.

It took 45 minutes to get the race started. That was not unusual as the 10 horses and their riders were especially fractious taking their assigned positions between the ropes at the start. Starting from what amounted to post 4, Pes jostled Benitos into an early lead, and the race was run virtually single file the whole way.

Riding in his seventh Palio, Pes kept looking over his right shoulder through the last half of the final lap around the trapezoid-shaped piazza that includes two 90-degree clockwise turns separated by a gradual arc around the northwest perimeter. The Selva entry lurked the whole race, finishing three lengths behind in second, which is considered to be more ignominious than being in last place.

When he realized his triumph was certain, Pes raised his crop in victorious fashion as fans began to spill onto the course ahead of the traditional cannon shot that signaled the finish of the 74-second race.

Lupa, which translates to she-wolf, is a northern Siena district that won for the first time in six years in the race that celebrates ancient religious rites every July 2 and Aug. 16. Both of this year’s runnings of the Palio were postponed by rain. The 10 entrants are determined in a draw to see which seven of Siena’s 17 districts are left out. When they are, they are guaranteed a place in the next race.

Jockeys ride bareback in the Palio with their only tack being bridles, reins and crops. They wear the colors of their wards and look like 18th-century cavalrymen. As physical as the race can be, the only real rules prohibit riders from attacking one another.

Saturday’s race was one of the most cleanly run editions of the Palio in recent memory with no riders dismounted during the running and every mount appearing fit at the end. More than 50 horses reportedly have died in the more than 100 runnings of the Palio since 1970, making the timeless event a frequent target of animal-rights activists while also being written into Siena’s rich, UNESCO-endorsed history.

Pes, 43, is a native of Sardinia, the Mediterranean island off the southern tip of mainland Italy. The local government of his hometown Silanus said on its website, “In Siena today the wonderful Dino Pes won the Palio of August 2024. Thank you for the beautiful emotions. All of Silanus is celebrating.”

A wedding party in Silanus reportedly was brought to a halt to watch the telecast of the race whose modern era dates to 1633.