Races with reconstruction – Newspaper Kommersant No. 153 (7354) of 08/23/2022

The Central Moscow Hippodrome (CMI), where races have been held since 1834, is closed for a three-year repair of tracks and stalls, restoration of the historical building and the construction of a VIP stand. The initiators of the work, the cost of which, according to some sources, may exceed 12 billion rubles, are the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation and the Moscow City Hall. Tenants of the CMI stables, which house up to 1,000 horses, complain that eviction for such a long period of time could lead to a reduction in the number of trotters and even “destruction of the industry.” The administration of the hippodrome assures that the races will be stopped only for a year and a half, for this period they are ready to accept hippodromes in Ramenskoye, Tambov, Ulyanovsk, Saratov, Voronezh, Kurs, Orel, Tver, Nizhny Novgorod, as well as in Siberia and the Urals .

The state company “Rosippodromy” has begun preparations for the reconstruction of the Central Moscow Hippodrome. The corresponding initiative comes from the structures of the Moscow mayor’s office and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation. The appeal of the head of the department of the Russian Federation Dmitry Patrushev (the department is subordinate to JSC Rosippodromy, which manages a network of 16 hippodromes in the Russian Federation) and Mayor Sergei Sobyanin in March 2021 was approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The general director of Rosippodromy JSC Dmitry Zaitsev explained to Kommersant that an appeal to the head of state was needed, since this is a joint project of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Moscow government: the work was financed by the city authorities, and the land and property of the hippodrome are in federal ownership. “It is impossible to attract funds from the Moscow budget directly to the joint-stock company,” a Kommersant source familiar with the course of cooperation explained. For the project, the city authorities created LLC TsMI, says Mr. Zaitsev, where “the necessary investments from the Moscow budget for reconstruction will be brought”, and JSC “Rosippodromy” “will bring the property of the hippodrome complex.” The cost of the work has not been approved, but, according to some estimates, it may exceed 12 billion rubles.

Two projects for the reconstruction of the CMI were developed back in 2014 by the architectural bureau Master’s Plan. The first one envisaged the construction of a 40-storey multifunctional complex on 1 hectare in the southwestern part of the CMI, the second – the removal of stables outside the city (on 100 hectares of land outside the Moscow Ring Road) and the development of 6 hectares of the hippodrome with housing. The former general director of Rosippodromov, Nikolai Isakov, in 2017 estimated the “full cost of restoration” of the CMI at 3 billion rubles. However, 19 thousand signatures were collected against the “destruction of the hippodrome”; the project was not implemented. Mr. Sobyanin in 2017 also advocated the preservation of the hippodrome “in its original form.”

“We completely preserve the territory, without replacing the unique functionality,” Mr. Zaitsev assures, adding that there are no plans to build housing in the CMI either. So far, only sketches have been presented: a detailed project for the reconstruction of the complex should be completed by May 2023 (and the historic building – by January 2024), and construction should begin as early as March 2023 and will take about three years. Moscow will act as the customer of the project and will pay for the further operation of the hippodrome, Dmitry Zaitsev adds.

Notices of termination of stable lease agreements (Kommersant has a copy of one of them) were sent by the state company Rosippodromy to tenants two months before the eviction. On August 3, at a meeting at the CMI with the participation of Andrei Razin, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, managers of stud farms and other tenants were presented with a three-stage schedule for the release of stables. By October 2022, January and the end of February 2023, riding and “non-core”, part of the trotting and, finally, all horses should leave them, respectively. Tenants are being evicted during the reconstruction of the CMI – with the restoration of the main building, the reconstruction of paths (the Rosippodroms promise to “bring them in line with industry requirements for the width and radius of turns”), the construction of new stables (for 1.1 thousand stalls, including including a guest room for 100 horses), arrangement of parking, equestrian, automobile and pedestrian tunnels under the tracks, and, finally, the construction of a VIP-tribune for 400 people “with the possibility of receiving protected persons.”

“The last time the work of the hippodrome stopped for two years during the war, when the Germans approached Moscow,” says Yury Prokhorov, general director of Moscow Stud Farm No. 1. At the same time, he agrees that the state of the CMI “leaves much to be desired” and “repairs are needed”, but does not understand “why to remove the entire population of horses, flog a fever without a project and serious research.” For the duration of the repair, tenants are invited to move to hippodromes in Ramenskoye, Tambov, Ulyanovsk and other cities of the Russian Federation, but Mr. Prokhorov says that the stables in the same Ramenskoye are “in even worse condition.” “They say there are a lot of places at the Barnaul Hippodrome. Of course, a lot – from there everyone left for Novosibirsk because of unbearable conditions. They suggested Ulyanovsk, only there are no tracks there, the stables are collapsing, ”recalls international-class master rider Alexander Nesyaev. According to Maria Khoreva, a foreman-rider from the Central Medical Institute, hippodromes in Ramenskoye, Tambov, Kazan and Ufa operate year-round in the Russian Federation, “otherwise the conditions are terrible.” According to her, moving 20 horses from Moscow to Tambov will cost 1 million rubles. At the same time, tenants spend 30–40 thousand rubles on the maintenance of one horse in the CMI. monthly. International-class master equestrian Mikhail Kozlov complains that the reconstruction of the CMI will force him to leave the industry: “My salary is 15 thousand rubles, I will not have money for moving, for transportation.”

“99% of private traders buy horses from our stud farm to put them on the Moscow hippodrome. Then from horses comes reproduction. If there is nowhere to put horses, the owners will stop buying them. This will be the strongest blow to the industry,” complains Yuri Prokhorov (his plant “produces” up to 50 trotters a year). “During the reconstruction, stud farms will not be able to sell products, the birth rate will collapse, especially breeding, and then (horses.— “b”) to a meat-packing plant,” says Mr. Kozlov. According to Yuri Prokhorov, the repair of the CMI should be carried out in parts. “We need to leave the buildings, repair the inside, change the roof and build a lightweight second floor,” says Alexander Nesyaev.

Director General of Rosippodromy JSC Dmitry Zaitsev says that the CMI is watching to “not disrupt the continuity of testing horses of breeding breeds.” “Our goal is to keep trotting horses on the hippodrome for as long as possible and to hold races at least until the end of the year in parallel with the site preparation. To do this, at the first stage we will have to make room by moving about 110 heads of non-core horses from the hippodrome,” says the manager. Mr. Zaitsev assures that in addition to the hippodromes mentioned above, “temporary guests are expected” in Saratov, Voronezh, Kurs, Orel, Tver, Nizhny Novgorod, as well as in Siberia and the Urals.

Running at the CMI is planned to resume in October 2024. “There will be no horses at the hippodrome for a year and a half. Can’t be less. There is an erroneous opinion that you can jump from place to place during repairs, keeping the livestock. But after all, it is planned to build several tunnels under the tracks, that is, the tracks will be dismantled, and there will be nothing for specialized horses to do at the hippodrome. And to leave non-core rental horses that would ride children on a construction site is to ignore elementary safety standards, ”adds Mr. Zaitsev.

Alexander Voronov, Ulyana Mironova