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Horse Racing and Maracana Stadium

Filed under: Ask Us - January 12th, 2006

Your Question

I am coming to Rio October 25th to Nov 8th this year. I would like to see some football matches at the local teams. What teams play in Rio. I will be staying at Plaza Copacabana hotel . Is it far to local stadiums and how much are tickets. I would also like to go horse racing . Is this in season in October/November.

Our Reply

From October 25th to November 8th you will be able to watch soccer matches of the Brazilian Championship Tournament – which is very well known throughout Brazil due to the excellent quality of soccer exhibition. If you want to enjoy good soccer I would recommend either a game where Flamengo, Fluminense, Vasco or Botafogo will be playing. These are the 4 most popular teams in Rio de Janeiro. In order to see something really different, you should watch a match at Maracana Stadium. If you are staying at Plaza Copacabana Hotel, you are approximatelly 11 kilometers from the stadium. Tickets prices range from 10 to 30 reals, depending on which location of the stadium you would like to be.

As for horse racing, in Rio de Janeiro you will find Hipodromo da Gavea; popularly known as The Jockey Club. It is located between two other tourist attractions, the Rodrigo de Freitas Lake and the Botanical Gardens. Hipodromo da Gavea holds Brazil’s most important horse-racing event. As for now, I could not find any information regarding races for october-november, but here is the time schedule when horse-races are held at Jockey Club: Monday nights starting at 6:30pm, friday evennings starting at 4:30pm, and saturdays and sundays starting at 2:00pm. You can either write me back closer to the date you are coming down to Brazil and I can try to find some new information or you can go to Jockey Club to check the news about horse riding in Rio de Janeiro.