MARINO BARTOLETTI: THE DINNER OF HORSE RACING GODS

‘I don't deny it, I am an agonist, very faithful to Enzo Ferrari's motto that ‘life must be lived as a competition’. Never shy away from a challenge even when reason might suggest different directions. And let alone when this ‘challenge’ has been proposed to me in a real competitive context'.
 

This is Marino Bartoletti's thinking, a well-known journalist and writer, director of sports publications, who has been involved in horse racing in the past, demonstrating skill and a certain aptitude for driving.
 

Marino, from the Sanremo classification to his personal preference of the sports he loves to tell.
 

I must say that I have had a lot of fun at racetracks. Given the proximity to my Forlì, as a child I went to see the horses at the Savio in Cesena. Then as an adult I continued to spend a few nice summer evenings with my legs under the table to enjoy some tasty cappelletti, a steaming piadina and as a side dish a few ‘bets’ as a novice.
 

And the punters must have bet on you a few times: how and when did your baptism in sulky take place?
 

Year 1987. I had just become editor of the Guerin Sportivo and Savio owner Tomaso Grassi asked me if I was interested in participating in a trotting race reserved for ‘VIPs’. Enrolled were cyclists, motorcyclists, boxers and more or less seasoned actors. A couple of afternoon lessons and I would have been ready for the initiation. That first time I was entrusted with Fezzano G, considered an outsider. Incredible but true, I won. And I repeated the following year.
 

From that moment on, you began to believe?
 

So much so that I got my gentleman's licence. For a few years I raced at several
Italian racecourses and even won the category classification once. I could already imagine the golden whip in my hands. It was an emotion that lasted a trotting time, because I was relegated for an irregularity I committed at Agnano, a ‘ruotata’ given inadvertently to an opponent.
 

What emotions does riding a horse arouse?
 

It's difficult to tell this to people who have never experienced it. The physical relationship of the horse that has no brakes or accelerator provokes an irrepressible emotion. The breathing of this creature coordinated with the sound of its hooves is a music that goes hand in hand with the beating of one's heart. It leads to a bursting explosion of adrenalin at the finish line.
 

Did Marco Pantani, a close friend of yours, also take to the track to run a trot?
 

Yes, he had just won that year's Giro d'Italia and Tour de France and Tomaso asked me to
organise a race to promote horse racing. And I immediately thought of the Pirate. It wasn't a
lucky race for him. He broke down right after the car took off. I don't think he even noticed
even noticed it.
 

You have a great ability to portray the beauty and poetry of sport in the past. And how much has the present one changed?
Now the news and stories are more algid, more tied to numbers, tactics and schemes. I still remember the magic leaps of the D'Inzeo brothers in Rome who monopolised the two highest steps of the podium.
 

Taking a cue from his brilliant book ‘The Dinner of the Gods’, in which he recounts a dinner
organised in paradise by Enzo Ferrari where he invites people who have made history, if you were to invite someone from horse racing, who would your guests be?
 

My legends from my youth and beyond: Sergio Brighenti, Vivaldo Baldi, Tomaso Grassi and why not, even Tornese and Crevalcore.

Do you still follow the horse world?
Indirectly yes, thanks to my daughter Caterina, who rode until she was 17-18 years old.
A passion for horse riding that she in turn passed on to her daughter Alice, who is 12. I am happy to have passed on the love for these creatures to her.
 

What does horse racing need to make people fall in love again?
When I was director of RaiSport, I gave horse racing space on more than one occasion with reports, in-depth reports and live broadcasts. Horse racing needs to recover its identity lost at a time when everything seemed easy and predictable: and above all it needs to make sure it deserves Olympus again.