HIPPODROME

Built in 1908, it was the first city racecourse in Tsarist Russia. It owes its existence to a very romantic love story between an officer of the czar and the daughter of General Petrakov. The general strongly opposed the marriage of his daughter Elena to the young captain Pianovsky, so the two lovers decided to flee from Tashkent. They seized the General's best horses and galloped to Karakol, where they took refuge and built the racecourse, which still sometimes hosts horse races.