Wolvega Racecourse

Wolvega Racecourse in the Frisian municipality of Weststellingwerf is the Netherlands' most important harness racing venue and the heart of Dutch trotting culture — a sport with deep roots in the Frisian horse breeding tradition that extends back centuries before the modern standardbred. The Wolvega track, a standard-configuration 1,000m trotting oval, hosts the UNO-race — the richest harness race in the Netherlands — as well as the core of the Dutch trotting season's championship programme. Friesland's specific cultural relationship with driving horses (the Frisian horse, a heavy warmblood breed used historically for carriage driving, is the region's most celebrated domestic animal) provides a social context for harness racing that distinguishes the sport in the Netherlands from its equivalent in Sweden or France. The Dutch harness racing programme, while modest by Scandinavian and French standards, maintains a dedicated national following and an active breeding industry based primarily on American and French standardbred bloodlines.