Protest Fears Prompt Cancellation of Thursday’s French Race Meetings

Racing will be cancelled in France at Fontainebleau and Croise-Laroche on Thursday, November 7, France Galop announced on Tuesday. The cancellation resulted after an emergency meeting of the France Galop board of directors at the request of president Guillaume de Saint-Seine. The Monday meeting analysed the consequences of a potential strike and mobilisation of the associations and socio-professional unions of the Galop and Trot  against the French government’s plan to tax horse racing betting, included in the Social Security Finance Bill, currently being discussed by Parliament.

France Galop released the following statement on Tuesday, which read in part, “In this context, as was the case at the SETF board of directors earlier in the day, the board of directors of France Galop, which was held at the end of the afternoon on Monday, 4 November, decided to cancel the two race meetings mentioned. This decision is based on the following considerations: the risk of disturbing public order, the lack of fairness between the professionals mobilized for this day and the risks of irregularity of the events due to a limited number of starters.

“In addition, the administrators of France Galop have taken note of the call for demonstrations issued by the professional associations and unions of the Galop and Trot, to obtain firstly the withdrawal of any measure to increase the tax on horse racing betting and secondly the support of the government for the development of new horse racing games. They declared their total solidarity with the objectives of this movement and called on all members of Le Galop and all actors in the equine sector to join this demonstration.”

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This story was posted in Europe, Shared News Europe and tagged betting tax, Croise-Laroche, Fontainebleau, France Galop, French government, parliament, possible strike, protests.