Accra, GhanaIt is only 10 a.m., but the jockeys of the Korle Gonno stables have already been up for seven hours. They sit in a semi-circle behind the Korle Bu district outpost of the Electricity Company of Ghana talking, occasionally chuckling, one of them eating waakye—a Ghanaian street food classic of rice and beans—from the large, waxy leaf in which it is served.

“We’re up at the break of dawn to take the horses to the beach,” explains Michael Allotey, a trainer. “We use the main roads to get to the shore, but it’s very early, the streets are quiet. Some days we canter the horses, sometimes we do gallop training, but we’re back here by 5 to 5:30 a.m.”

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