What is the “Bigorda d’Oro”?

The Bigorda d’Oro tournament was founded in1997 as a youth version of the Palio, competed for by young jockeys from the five districts of Faenza. It’s traditional that within each of the districts there are youngsters who train daily to be able to dispute the Niballo – the Faenza Palio – in the future. So, in order to assess and gauge the young talents’ ability the Bigorda d’Oro came about.The name Bigorda invokes tilting the lance events from medieval jousting tournaments, while the race follows the same rules as the Palio on the second Sunday of June at the stadium and is introduced by a parade of flag bearers like in the Middle Ages.    However, there are two constraints in the new version compared to the traditional Palio: whoever races in the Bigorda cannot participate in the Niballo in the same year, moreover whoever has won the true Palio cannot then compete in the youth version.
Even if the tournament is still young, the Bigorda d’Oro can boast an impressive number of diehard fans, around five thousand people followed the event last year.Source: Bigorda official website