France Faces Threat to Resumption of Racing in Paris

French racing's bid to resume after a seven-week hiatus due to the coronavirus outbreak has one more hurdle to clear. 

Rumors of a late challenge to the French government's decision to allow a Monday resumption began to circulate May 8, leading France Galop and its trotting counterparts to issue a joint statement acknowledging that they had been involved in discussions with the state to ensure that Monday's meetings at ParisLongchamp, Compiegne, and Toulouse can all proceed.  

The communique stated: "Since this morning a number of alarmist reports have been widely circulated concerning the restart of racing on May 11 across the whole of France, which have caused legitimate concerns throughout the sport.

"France Galop and LeTrot have been working throughout the day to continue to make the case for the indispensable need to restart racing on May 11, as already planned and organized."  

In late April, racing and trotting authorities reached agreement with their government masters at the departments of agriculture and the budget to resume operations behind closed doors on the basis of observing strict sanitary regulations. 

While France Galop developed a series of backup plans in case of a need to do without its main tracks in Paris—the most serious center of the coronavirus outbreak—the news this week that the police authorities had given the go-ahead for racing in the capital appeared to remove one of the last remaining obstacles.

France's Prime Minister Edouard Philippe confirmed Thursday that the "deconfinement" process would begin Monday, albeit at a slower pace in the northeast quarter of the country where the virus is still circulating at an elevated level. 

Among these "red zone" areas, there is particular concern about the Ile de France region—with Paris at its heart—and it is the need to revisit arrangements there that appears to have led to a last minute reexamination of racing's case.

Some French media reports suggest that certain key figures connected with professional football—which like all team sports is banned until September under President Emmanuel Macron's gradual scheme to reinstate parts of the French economy and society—may have lobbied the government to have a second look at racing, which is under different oversight to the vast majority of sport. 

Four potential scenarios have now emerged:

• Racing retains its right to resume behind closed doors Monday at the venues planned. This is undoubtedly France Galop's preferred scenario, and the statement makes it clear this is what it is fighting to preserve.
• The first fallback could be to surrender the Paris tracks—perhaps for the three weeks until the beginning of June, when the second stage of deconfinement is due to take place—but retain the use of other courses in red-zone areas such as Chantilly.
• A more stringent reading of the red zone/green zone divide would prevent the use of Chantilly as well as the second-most important jumps track at Compiegne, with Deauville on the Normandy coast becoming a key component of the new program. As with the other two scenarios, racing could still begin May 11.
• The worst case would be a revisiting of the previous agreement, meaning a delay to the resumption anywhere in the country. There is no indication yet to support this as a likely outcome.