It is the tasty “appetizer” of the Palio, a horse race reserved for emerging jockeys capable of arousing… the watering for the great challenge on Sunday 26 May that the districts have been waiting for, dreaming of and fearing for a year.
It’s already Palio fever: the Provaccia takes place tonight
We are obviously talking about the Favari Memorial, the 39th edition of which will be staged today, Friday 24 May. Born in the 1980s on the initiative of the College of captains and districts, it is a bareback race with the same rules as the Palio (the two classic batteries of four horses each and the final, contested between the two winners of each battery) reserved for young emerging jockeys. The event takes its name from the unforgettable Luigi Favaripresident of the organizing committee of the then Sagra del Carroccio.
Appointment at 8pm at the Mari Stadium in via Pisacane
The appointment with Provaccia, as everyone calls it, is for 8pm today, Friday 24 May, at the Mari Stadium in via Pisacane. The evening will open with the Bersaglieri Fanfare, followed by the parade of children who participated and won the “Palio di Legnano, History and Culture” competition promoted by the College of Captains and Contradas with the patronage of the Municipality of Legnano. Then it will be the turn of the presentation of the district regencies and the entrance of the grand master Raffaele Bonito. After which the preliminary heats will begin (two, each from four districts, drawn on site), followed by the honors to the grand master, the final of the horse race (which will see first and second-placed horses from both heats take to the track) and finally the award ceremony for the winning district. Mossiere Davide Busatti.
The winner of the 2023 edition was Sant’Erasmo
For the record, the jockey was the winner of the 2023 edition of the Provaccia Andrea Sanna, who rode the horse T’Appartengo and wore the jacket of Sant’Erasmo. The winner of the previous edition was the Legnarello district, with its jockey Michel Putzu and the horse Morning Glory. In the roll of honor, Sant’Ambrogio leads the Provaccia rankings, with 12 victories (the last in 2021 with the jockey Federico Guglielmi on the horse Ares Elce); followed by San Magno with six (the last in 2018 with the jockey Marco Bitti on the horse Shane Falco) and Legnarello with five (the last, as already mentioned, in 2022).
In the cover photo: a moment from the 2023 edition of Provaccia, won by Sant’Erasmo with T’Appartengo ridden by Andrea Sanna
