I have just been to the races in Italy. It is a bit more like going to the "dogs" – a colourful family funfair evening event that has nothing of the pomp of British horse racing.

I generally resist gambling but a little flutter does make one's heart beat faster and enables greater interest in what otherwise may be a baffling race. So I put five euros on horse number four that a local wag was sure would win. He had put 50 euros on it.

Alas the horse trailed in nearly last and, I expressed delight that I had not been tempted to bet more, until my Italian host insisted I had won! How could I possibly have won when I bet to win and it was clear that it came in last but one?

I did not even bother to check his assertion, but his wife took my ticket and collected my 25 euros.

Apparently in Italy if a horse from the same stable wins you win. This is a bizarre anti-corruption device to prevent any stable fixing the result.

However my winning for losing is only the tip of the iceberg in Italian sport where Prime Minister Berlusconi leads the way by example. I can just imagine the reaction if I tried it on in a Bristol betting shop. I challenge anyone to do so.

We once went as a young family to the Palio in Siena, which must be the most extreme horse race in the world.

Many vain attempts have been made to ban it because of the danger to the horses, and riders.

Set in the Campo, the great fan-shaped piazza in the middle of the wonderful medieval city of Siena, it consists of eight or so horses charging round the brick paved square with crowds in the middle and lining the edge. Each horse and rider represents a quarter of the city. Each quarter is represented by an animal symbol with supporters wearing their crest with pride and waving their flags.

The nearest we get to such rivalry is a local derby football match between City and Rovers. Imagine Bedminster, Clifton, Fishponds, Horfield, Redland, Southmead, Withywood, Whitchurch and Clifton all with their own stables and crests culminating in an annual race around the Queen Square perimeter road once a year.

The Siena rivalry is so intense that the jockeys, who ride bare back, are hired in from other regions as they could not live locally with the shame of losing. They wear running shoes to give themselves a chance of escaping from a beating by supporters if they lose.

This may seem primitive but one jockey who had been in the Palio last week turned up to our night-time race meeting bruised by the lashing he had suffered at the hands of his Siena sponsors.

Could we introduce the equivalent of the annual Siena Palio to Bristol? There are many such equivalent traditions in other cities of Italy and Europe.

They are clearly a strong catalyst for community cohesion and identity as well as a major magnet for tourist income.

When we planned 'Harbourside' I suggested we built in a special Bristol annual event of an equivalent nature – without cruelty to animals.

Maybe it could have made a virtue of great skateboarding or rollerblading skills – or better still made use of the water?

All ideas are welcome for an annual Bristol event that would harness community rivalry and bring people from far and wide to visit our very special European city.

We could introduce some bizarre betting rules to go with it ...