Ngong Racecourse is a racecourse in Nairobi

Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...

, Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

. It is the main and currently only thoroughbred racing venue in Kenya. It is located along the Ngong Road in besides the Ngong Road Forest between the estates of Woodley, Langata

Langata

Lang'ata is a suburb of Nairobi in Kenya, lying south west of the city centre and east of Karen. The suburb consists of many smaller housing developments, referred to as estates. They include Nairobi Dam, Otiende, Southlands, Ngei, Jambo estate, Onyonka, Madaraka Estate and many others...

 and Karen

Karen, Kenya

Karen is a suburb of Nairobi in Kenya, lying south west of the city centre.It is generally believed that the suburb is named after Karen Blixen, the Danish author of the colonial memoir Out of Africa; her farm occupied the land where the suburb now stands. Blixen herself declared in her later...

. It is operated by the Jockey Club of Kenya .

The racecourse was opened 1954, when it replaced the old racecourse in Kariokor, near Nairobi CBD . Ngong Racecourse is nowadays the only racecourse in Kenyan although there have been ones in other towns, including Eldoret

Eldoret

Eldoret is a town in western Kenya and the administrative centre of Uasin Gishu District of Rift Valley Province. Lying south of the Cherangani Hills, the local elevation varies from about 2100 metres above sea level at the airport to more than 2700 metres in nearby areas...

, Nakuru

Nakuru

Nakuru, the provincial capital of Kenya's Rift Valley province, with roughly 300,000 inhabitants, and currently the fourth largest urban centre in the country, lies about 1850 m above sea level...

, Nanyuki

Nanyuki

Nanyuki is a market town in central-east Rift Valley region of Kenya lying northwest of Mount Kenya along the A2 road and at the terminus of the branch railway from Nairobi. It is situated just north of the Equator . It was founded in 1907 by British settlers, some of whose descendants still live...

 and Limuru

Limuru

Limuru is a town in central Kenya. It is also the name of a parliamentary constituency and an administrative division. Current 2004 population is about 4800....

. The first horse racing event in Kenya took place in 1904 in Machakos

Machakos

Machakos is a town in Kenya, 64 kilometres southeast of Nairobi. It is the capital of the Machakos District in Eastern Province of Kenya. Machakos Town is a major rural centre, and also a satellite town due to its proximity to Nairobi. Its population is rapidly growing and is 192,117...

 .

The most prominent event held at the racecourse is the annual Kenya Derby, which was first held in 1914 . Races are held there most Sundays . Apart from horse racing, the venue has used for cross country running

Cross country running

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

 competitions , and it has acted as a special stage

Special stage (rallying)

Special stages are the competitive sections of a stage rally event where the goal is to cover a stretch of closed road in the shortest time. On a special stage cars are set off individually at set intervals to reduce the chances of being impeded by other competitors. Each special stage is a...

 for the Safari Rally

Safari Rally

The Safari Rally is considered by many to be the world's toughest rally. It was first held from 27 May to 1 June 1953 as the East African Coronation Safari in Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II...

 . It has also been used for Ostrich racing .

External links

• Ngong Racecourse (through archive.org, from 2003)
• Jockey Club of Kenya (through archive.org, from 2004)