Gazi Race
horse race
The Gazi Race (Turkish: Gazi Koşusu), also known as the Gazi Derby, is a Turkish thoroughbred horse flat race that is established in honor of the founder of the Turkish Republic Gazi Mustafa Kemal. It is country's most prestigious horse racing event, which is held uninterruptedly since its establishment in 1927. Restricted to 22 three-year-old thoroughbred horses, it is raced clockwise at a distance of 2,400 m (2,600 yd) on turf (grass) track at the Veliefendi Race Course in Istanbul. The 100th and most recent of the race held on 28 June 2026, was won by a thoroughbred named Bay Nalçakan, ridden by jockey Halis Karataş, who had previously won the race six times, in 1996, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2012 and 2014.
History
Mustafa Kemal, founder of the Turkish Republic, was honored with the title Ghazi (Turkish: Gazi) in 1923 by the Turkish Grand National Assembly due to his successful command at the Turkish War of Independence. He used this title until 1934, when he was given the surname "Atatürk" (literally: Father of Turks) following the adoption of the Surname Law.
A fan of horse racing, Gazi Mustafa Kemal said "Horse racing is the social need for modern societies". He organized horse races even during the years of the War of Independence in Ankara, in the new capital of modern Turkey.
The first officially organized horse racing was run on 10 June 1927 in Ankara by British bred horses without age restriction over a distance of 2,000 m (2,200 yd). The money award was TL 2,000.
“Gazi Race” enters the record as horse race. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gazi, Race and horse can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5529126. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1927, 2026, 1996 and 2005.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gazi Race” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.