TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/947139
West Germany, and two million West Berliners found themselves unable to visit the track. Throughout the communist era, racing continued to be held, but private ownership of horses was discouraged, and there ensued a steady decline of horses, fans and of the facilities. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1990, an initial euphoria ensued in Ber- lin, but it soon became clear that not only would the city's economic problems take a while to repair, but the racecourse's would, too. Fifteen years after reunification, Hoppegar- ten was still languishing, and it would require more than an infusion of cash to turn the place around, but someone with the passion, energy and foresight to do so. It found that in Schöningh. The 56 year-old Schöningh grew up in Krefeld, Germany, near Cologne, to a non-racing family. "To this day, it's lost on my mother what I like about racing," he said. "But my par- ents made the mistake of moving house when I was seven, literally right next to the racecourse in my hometown." He was hooked. Schöningh went to university in the U.K., at Bristol, and found he en- joyed that country's excellent rac- ing. He settled in London, co-found- ed a fund management boutique which he says, "did quite well." In 2006, he sold it, and was considering starting another company when a friend said to him, `by the way, have you heard that the government in Germany is privatizing Hoppegarten Racecourse?' "Because I had little to do at the time," continued Schöningh, "I thought, great, that sounds interesting. Why not order the documentation? It was " W H E R E V E R R A C I N G I S D O N E W E L L , I T A P P E A L S T O A L L S P H E R E S I N S O C I E T Y."