Leangen Travbane is a
harness racing course located at
Leangen in
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
. The race course is owned by the
Norwegian Trotting Association
The Norwegian Trotting Association ( no, Det Norske Travselskap, DNT) is the sports federation organizing horse racing in Norway. It is an umbrella for the 13 regional federations and 185 local chapters with 17,000 members. Tote betting takes pl ...
and its
parimutuel betting
Parimutuel betting or pool betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the "house-take" or "vigorish" are deducted, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winnin ...
is handled by
Norsk Rikstoto. Through this arrangement it is the only equine
tote betting
The Tote is a British gambling company which is the largest pool betting operator in the United Kingdom. Headquartered in Wigan, England, its main products are sports betting and online casino. Founded in 1928, the company was owned by the UK ...
establishment in
Trøndelag
Trøndelag (; sma, Trööndelage) is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County ( no, Trondhjems Amt); in 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denma ...
and
Møre og Romsdal.
History
was established as the first horse racing club in Norway in 1873, and the first club in Trondheim, , was established in 1879, with Johan Henrik Spørck as the most enthusiastic founder. He took initiative for the first organized race to be held on the ice of
Jonsvatnet that winter, and paid 200
Norwegian krone (NOK) in prize money from his own pocket. Summer races were organized along the closed off section of the
Trondhjem–Støren Line, which had been closed between
Sluppen and Valset. The organization worked with the breeding of fast trotting horses, and based itself on the
Dølahest.
Interest declined from 1895, but rose again from 1904, when Trøndelag Trotting Association (TT) was established, as part of the Norwegian Trotting Association. Its initial race on Jonsvatnet gathered a crowd of 4,000 spectators. Later
Vintervannet in
Bymarka
Bymarka is a large park and nature reserve on the west side of the city of Trondheim in Trøndelag county, Norway.
Location and use
Bymarka is situated to the west of the city center and has an area of , with more than of walking tracks. Bym ...
and
Lodgårdsvannet in
Melhus
Melhus is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Gauldalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Melhus. Other villages include Gåsbakken, Hovin, Korsvegen, Kvål, Ler, Lundamo, S ...
were used. However, dependency on cold weather for the execution of races and poor tracks on the ice caused interest in establishing a land track and the association started working with the issue in 1911.
TT moved its races to
Lianvatnet from 1925, where it drew up to 6,000 spectators at its events. The association was offered a free lot at Lianmyrene in 1927, but declined. Up until the 1920s equine betting was illegal in Norway and the events and prize money was collected through admission rather than through bets. In 1928
Bjerke Travbane opened in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
and the law was changed, allowing for bets to be placed at races there. TT received permission to operate its first six toto races in 1930 and
warmblood
Warmbloods are a group of middle-weight horse types and breeds primarily originating in Europe and registered with organizations that are characterized by open studbook policy, studbook selection, and the aim of breeding for equestrian spor ...
s competed for the first time.
A committee was established to look into the permanent track case. They eventually concluded that Leangen Søndre would be the most suitable site and planned to purchase of farmland and of forest to build the venue. Plans for the track were devised by engineer
Sverre S. Klingenberg and after negotiations a price of NOK 77,500 was agreed upon for the lot. The site at the time a rural location in the municipality of
Strinda. Selmer and Blekkan bid for the construction, which was approved by TT's annual meeting on 30 April 1931. During the municipal council's discussion there was a proposal that the contractor would be required to only hire unemployed people from Strinda, but the terms were not approved with five against four council votes.
[Skjervold: 87]
Construction commenced in May and the venue could open on 5 September, one week after schedule.
During the
German occupation of Norway
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until th ...
Leangen was expropriated by the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
and horse racing instead took place at Tempebanen. The popularity of horse-racing saw a dramatic increase during the war, in part because other sports were in a self-imposed shut-down and in part because of the lack of amenities for the general public to spend money on. The venue reopened after the war on 6 October 1946.
During the 1950s the inner parts of the track were used as a recreational
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
field.
Races at Leangen became part of
Norsk Rikstoto tote betting
The Tote is a British gambling company which is the largest pool betting operator in the United Kingdom. Headquartered in Wigan, England, its main products are sports betting and online casino. Founded in 1928, the company was owned by the UK ...
from 1984, allowing for a national betting audience. From the 1990s this was further reorganized with a national network of commissioners. With the new system, all betting on horses in Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal went to TT and Leangen. In 2008 the region had a revenue of NOK 333 million on betting.
[Skjervold: 91]
Facilities
The track is long. Compared to the other racecourses in Norway, it has the steepest curves, with a radius of , and the longest straight before the finish, at . The venue has stables for 102 permanent and 43 visiting horses. There are various training tracks in the inner section. The venue has floodlights.
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
*
*
External links
Official website
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Sports venues in Trondheim
Harness racing venues in Norway
Football venues in Norway
Event venues established in 1931
1931 establishments in Norway