There’s no stopping horse racing. Not even the Olympic Games, scheduled for July 26 to August 11, 2024 and most of the events will be held in the capital. However, the largest sporting event on the planet requires organizing companies to adapt to the holding of race meetings in the Paris region.
If the galloping events are relocated as usual to the Normandy coast for the traditional Deauville meeting, those reserved for trotters are finally maintained in Enghien (Val-d’Oise) as every year during the summer period. Between traffic restrictions and competition from the Olympics, which risk having repercussions on the issues by diverting the attention of racegoers, the horse racing world will have to make do.
For many weeks, LeTrot, France Galop, and the PMU have been on alert to try to limit the impact of the Games. As soon as the winter meeting in Vincennes, a crucial period, with a high concentration of issues, LeTrot planned to relocate the competitions planned on the Soisy plateau and to reestablish the post-Covid system (due to confinements) and to transfer the meetings to Mauquenchy (Seine-Maritime), Laval (Mayenne) and Le Mans (Sarthe).
Rouen-Mauquenchy racecourse as plan B
Since June 14, this option has finally been ruled out, and the Enghien racecourse, which will host the Olympic flame on July 19, will be in operation. “We got in touch with the prefecture,” explains Benoît Fabrega, director of operations within the technical department of LeTrot. Their information expects fairly low traffic due to high demands for teleworking and vacations over the three weeks. »
Enough to reassure the most skeptical part of the professionals, based mostly in Mayenne and Normandy, who were already brandishing the #raceandcare label, deployed for two years to raise awareness among the public and the various racing stakeholders about horse welfare. “It’s going to be great to be stuck for hours on the road in high temperatures,” grumbled some trainers. “We’ll have meetings organized the week before the start of the Games,” confided one manager. If the situation is too complicated on the road, for the horses, but also for the men who ensure that a meeting runs smoothly, we have a plan B.”
Thus, the Mauquenchy racecourse was requisitioned as a precaution. “Given the prefecture’s forecasts, it would be a shame to decide too quickly and regret it,” confided a source close to the case.
Enghien, providential solution
As for the betting operator, the launch of the PMU + application, allowing betting on the national offline network by SMS, took place a little earlier than planned, in May, in order to respond to the difficulties what travelers might encounter to get to their point of sale. If “the logic of maintaining the racing program in Enghien” was favored by the organizers, the economic one cannot therefore be completely eclipsed. Even if we insist that there is “no connection” on Themis’ side.
However, Parisian racetracks generate higher stakes than provincial ones (between 10 and 15% in the long term), and in these times of purchasing power crisis and downward trend on horse racing bets at the PMU during the first quarter, this decision to maintain the summer meeting in Enghien appears to be a providential solution.
