For this July Provenzano Palio, the lotto of horses selected by the ten Contrada captains was considered fairly high with a few debs, a bunch of experts and even three previous winners. Fate decided that the victorious ones be randomly assigned to Owl, Tower and Dragon. Blind luck seemed to have fun taunting us Caterpillars once again granting us the same second rank horse we had raced with last year. The happiest populace though seemed to be the Snails as they received a horse considered to be a "bombolone" mainly for the bounty of victors conquered in other races all year round. No surprises then if they hired top jockey Scompiglio while the other two seeded riders decided to wear the colours of the Giraffe and yes, the Caterpillar. Tittia, obviously far-sighted and well aware the potential Tale e Quale had and Brio, probably because of his bond with my beloved Noble Contrada (long story). Despite Brio's efforts, for the entire three neck breaking laps we were always behind the two main contenders and never seemed to stand any chance (photo below). The core is that the Palio banner (photo above) went for the fourth time this century to our former enemies and good job we signed the peace treaty a few decades ago otherwise I might have well shot myself! August Palio coming up next, on Sunday we will find out if we will be in it or not. Fingers crossed! |