Hopla Derby, fun you can bet on

At one point in his life, Alessandro Quercetti bet on the right horse: “Galoppa”, a wind-up steed on wheels that he invented and built in the late 1940s.

“Galoppa” soon turned into an unexpected success, and became the first of many winning toys manufactured by the company the Recanati-born entrepreneur (1920-2010) co-founded with a friend in Turin in 1950.

The company was called Hopla, and four “Hopla Derby” wind-up horses were among its first launches.

A few years later Quercetti achieved international fame with his “Chiodini”, a creative game that inspired even avant-garde artists to make some very interesting compositions.

Yet he never forgot those first little horses, Galoppa and his “Hopla Derby” mates, who had been so lucky for him.