The previous article was only a picture of the building of the First-class Horse Viewing Stand of the former Negishi Racecourse, but the entire site of the former racecourse is now the vast Negishi Forest Park, and the stand has been preserved in a corner of the park. The Negishi Horse Racing Memorial Park, which includes a horse racing museum and a riding stable, is located adjacent to the forest park.
The two are separated by a simple fence, but visitors can come and go as they please. I am not sure of the details, but it seems that a corner of Forest Park is almost entirely devoted to the Horse Racing Memorial Park facility. I went through these parks on my way to visit the stand, which was my original purpose, but I was pleasantly surprised to find many objects for snapshot enthusiasts to take pictures of.
As soon as you get off the bus stop, you will be greeted by the Shinzan statue at the Horse Racing Memorial Park.
In 1964, Shinzan was the first 4-year-old (at the time) postwar horse to win the Triple Classic Crown, and the following year he won the Emperor’s Championship and Arimakinen All-star race, making him the winner of the Fifth Crown. The fact that the bronze statues of Shinzan and Tokino Minoru are displayed in the Horse Racing Memorial Park shows the age of this park.
I was attracted by the museum, but did not stop there. I was about to go through the forest park, but I noticed something moving on my right. I went closer to see what it was and found a stable, which unexpectedly gave me a chance to take this photo.
Here is a rehearsal scene from the Negishi Junior Horse Riding Club’s special autumn riding performance. Four male and female junior high and high school students and a broadcaster (who also looked like a student) put on an outstanding performance.
The performance was wonderful, but it was the first time in my life that I took pictures of horses, walking or running, so I’m sorry that the pictures are so bad.
I think one of the attractions of photographing equestrian performances is the serious expression on the rider’s face, but this time I was allowed to take a picture of the rider without specifically asking him to do so at the first encounter, so I had to use a masked photo. I am sorry.
After this, we headed through the forest park to the former viewing stand. The park on top of a hill is not only vast, but also has large undulations that make you wonder if this is the site of a horse race track.
Although the weather was nice and the park was crowded with many citizens, there was no sense of “crowding” because of the large size of the park. Even in the big city of Yokohama, the overcrowded feeling is somewhat different from that of Tokyo.
It’s a typical Showa-born person’s mentality that seeing a tree like this reminds me of “the Hitachi CM tree”. Anyway, it is a beautiful big tree that has started to change color a little.
The benches and tables in the park had the look of autumn deepening a bit.
There is also a little enclave of parkland behind the stand that overlooks the residential area of Yamate, Yokohama, from a high point. The Landmark Tower can be seen peeking out over the hill to the northwest.
So, with Lumix G99 and Pana Leica lens in hand, I went for a photo walk around Negishi Forest Park. The day’s walk did not end there, and from here I walked to JR Yamate station to head to my other destination.
