San Martino and San Rocco Won the Palio di Asti for the First Time in Fourteen Years in a Race Where the Last Rider Gets an Anchovy
Two starts were voided and the third brought several jockeys down before Dino Pes took the bareback race over three laps of the Piazza Vittorio Alfieri.
Borgo San Martino and San Rocco won the Palio di Asti in Piedmont on 6 September 2026, their first victory in the bareback horse race since 2012.
The winning jockey was Dino Pes, known as Velluto, who was born on 12 December 1980 in Silanus in the province of Nuoro in Sardinia, riding Excalibur. San Pietro finished second and the favourites Tanaro third, followed by Baldichieri, Torretta, San Lazzaro, Cattedrale and San Silvestro.
The final was run over three laps of the Piazza Vittorio Alfieri, a triangular square used for the race since 1988. Eight horses started instead of nine after Castell'Alfero's runner was excluded by the veterinary commission following the heats. The starter Andrea Calamassi had to void two starts, and the third brought several jockeys down.
Pes has also won palii at Siena, Legnano and Fucecchio, and won at Asti in 2019 riding for Cattedrale.
The winning borgo receives the drappo, a painted banner made this year by the master Marco Aru. Lower placings receive, in descending order, silver coins, spurs, wine and ribbons. The last rider to finish is presented with an anchovy. The race is first documented in 1275, when the chronicler Guglielmo Ventura recorded Asti running a palio beneath the walls of its rival Alba. It was revived in 1967 and has been fixed to the first Sunday in September since 2018.