Ramat Gan Racecourse

The Ramat Gan Racecourse served as Israel's primary horse racing venue from its establishment during the British Mandate period through to the opening of Caesarea Racecourse in 2009. Located in Ramat Gan within the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, the track operated across six decades of Israeli history — from the final years of Mandatory Palestine through the establishment of the State of Israel (1948), the country's developmental period, and into the modern era. The track's history reflects Israel's own history — racing continued through periods of war, economic hardship, and mass immigration, serving as a consistent social institution for the diverse Jewish community (Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Soviet-era immigrants all participated) as well as for Israel's Arab minority population. Ramat Gan's racing programme was administered under the pre-IRK racing authority system and provided the foundation on which modern Israeli racing was built. The track's closure as a primary racing venue (in favour of Caesarea's superior modern facility) ended an era, but the Ramat Gan site retained some auxiliary training functions in the transition period. The track's contribution to Israeli racing — the Israel Derby winners, the trainers and jockeys who built careers at Ramat Gan, and the bloodstock families whose breeding programmes sustained the programme — provides essential historical context for understanding contemporary Israeli racing.