An article in today's edition of the Los Angeles Times highlights how Iraqi horse racing enthusiasts have overcome war-torn conditions to find a relative escape at the Baghdad Equestrian Club. It is quite a feat that racing is actually being conducted there, seeing as though the track has been the scene of al Qaeda-related violence over the past couple of years

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The report states that during the worst of times around the racetrack "car bombs exploded at the track's gate, mortar rounds went off inside and gunmen assassinated spectators as they left."

According to the article, Baghdad Equestrian Club chairman Taleb Abdul Hussein Majid narrowly avoided being killed leaving the track in 2007, as he had stayed behind later than usual to groom his horses and was ambushed on his way home. For the next two days, Majid returned to the track with a group of friends and family which were armed with weapons.

Majid said that if he were to have stayed away from the track during that desperate time, "it would have been the end of the club."

Click here to the read the Los Angeles Times article in its entirety, and make sure to view the collection of photos which accompany it.

(With files from the Los Angeles Times)