Zagreb Hippodrome

In its current location in Kajzerica neighbourhood, the Zagreb Hippodrome covers over 65 hectares between the Sava River in the north, the Zagreb Fair and the Lokomotiva Stadium (now Jožef Antal Street) in the south, the Liberty Bridge and Bundek in the east, and the Kajzerica neighborhood in the west. It was to be a part of a near-utopian Croatian Olympic Center project started in 1947. The prisoners of the old Kajzerica Prison built the layout of many sports fields, but since then, only the Hippodrome and the Lokomotiva Stadium have survived.

The Zagreb Hippodrome is mid-sized, and encompasses all aspects of equestrian sports, which is rare. Modeled after the Paris Longchamp race course on the banks of Seine, whose first race was observed from a yacht by Napoleon III, the nephew of the famous Napoleon. A hundred years later, in 1950, the Zagreb Hippodrome was built on the southern bank of the Sava River, in Kajzerica, which was named after the Kaiser (the Emperor), since that was the location of a former imperial training ground. And also, this was the short lived border of the Illyrian Provinces.

Today it is marked by the old French milestone near the footbridge at the entrance to Kajzerica. The race tracks are high-quality, with good drainage. The Hippodrome used to have birch enclosures, and a grand stand in the sand bank which enclosed the track, as well as other sports objects. The Hippodrome features a rare 2400-meter-long grass racetrack, a 1600-meter-long grass racetrack, and a 1000-meter-long dirt racetrack.  All three tracks were opened in 1950. In the middle of the dirt racetrack there is a show-jumping course.