Clarified government restrictions force French to rejig racing calendar

Racing in France has been dealt a blow by the French government’s decision to suspend race meetings in some of the Paris region.

Officials have said that any track located within a coronavirus ‘red zone’ must stop staging meetings.

The move means racing is suspended at prestigious courses such as Longchamp, Auteuil and Saint Cloud with immediate effect. French racing resumed behind closed doors eight days ago.

However tracks in other zones such as in Normandy or in the south and the west of the country can continue racing.

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The first major European Classics, the French 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas, had been scheduled for June 1st at Longchamp and could now be switched to Deauville.

The coastal venue hosted both races for the two years that Longchamp was being redeveloped.

France Galop, the sport’s ruling body in France, is looking to reschedule meetings at alternate venues.

A government decree outlining terms and conditions for the opening of racecourses is expected to be published later this week.

A France Galop statement on Tuesday evening said: “This decree should specify that horseracing is indeed carried out in the departments located in the green zones but not in those located in the red zones. The regions in red are Ile-de-France, Hauts-de-France, Grand-Est and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

“While the resumption of racing is reinforced by this decree to be published, the parent companies and the Fédération Nationale des Courses Hippiques deeply regret that the racecourses located in the red zones cannot operate as they have done since May 11th.

“The reinforced closed-door protocol and all sanitary measures have also been scrupulously respected since the resumption of racing on May 11. Regular controls have been carried out and have not revealed any problems.

“However, the parent companies take note of this decision, which regulates the conditions for the resumption of horseracing, and will apply the new directives from Thursday.

“Some prefectures, such as Paris, have already anticipated the publication of the decree by notifying France Galop and LeTrot this morning of the decision to prohibit the opening of their racecourses.

“The teams are working on plans to rearrange the May and June calendar and will announce as soon as possible where the races that were scheduled in the red zones will be held. This calendar will be subject to changes as soon as a red department turns green.”

Olivier Delloye, the chief executive of France Galop, is hopeful no meetings will be lost as a result of the decision.

He tweeted: “I hoped our contingency plans would not be necessary but they will for the forthcoming weeks. B-plan to be released soon. No fixture will be lost – racing goes on but we need to adapt to fast changing (and hard to read) rules.”