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Palio Horse Race, Siena, Italy, 1986

"[At Siena's Palio horse race] tragedy strikes two-time winner Brandano, a prize gelding racing last year for Chiocciola, the contrada [neighborhood] of the Snail. As sometimes happens, several horses went down while rounding Curva di San Martino, a sharp turn opposite the finish line made all the more difficult by its downward slope. Brandano suffered a broken leg and had to be destroyed—a crushing blow to members of the Snail. Five jockeys were injured in the accident."

—From "Palio," June 1988, National Geographic magazine

Photograph by O. Louis Mazzatenta