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The first Palio from Siena for 2023 will be run on 2 July.

It's called the "Palio di Provenzano" and as usual will have 10 representatives from the 17 contradas or wards of the city.  The jockeys and the horses are selected by a draw and this year the contradas Selva and Torre drew horses that had previously won.  There were another 5 horses that had run in previous Palii and they went to the contradas Tartuca, Istrice, Nichio, Drago and Onda.

On the 5 mornings prior to race day there are trials run and the last of these was the General Trial which was won by Onda with Tartuca second and Istrice third.  Istrice is our old contrada from a time when we lived in Siena and this year's horse is called Reo Confesso and the jockey will be Federico Arri with the nickname "Ares". The jockeys, who mostly hail from Sardinia, ride bareback and before the race they are handed whips which they can use on other jockeys as well as the horses.

The 3 turns of the Piazza del Campo works out to about 1000m with uphill and downhill sections and very tight corners.

There's been a bit of rain around so the track needs some attention and there may be the odd shower on the big afternoon.