At Ukrainian Racetrack, just trying to survive

The following story was written by Bill Finley, for the Thoroughbred Daily News.

Olga Bondar makes the trip each day from her home in central Kyiv to the racecourse outside the city to care for and feed her harness racing horses. She knows the dangers involved, but she can’t abandon her horses. She has no plans to leave a country under siege.

“When I come here, I don’t know if I will make it home because anything can happen in war,” she said. “You don’t know if you will be alive tomorrow.”

Bondar is a trainer, a driver and the vice director of the Kyiv Hippodrome, one of two racetracks in Ukraine. The Kyiv Hippodrome holds races for various breeds of trotters. The Odessa Hippodrome holds races for trotters and Thoroughbreds. Both tracks have been closed since the Russian invasion began.

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