Clement: PMU Needs “A Bit Of Oxygen”

French racing authorities will on Tuesday meet with government officials to discuss the next steps in getting racing back under starters orders. Nicolas Clement, president of the French Trainers Association, said chief among the topics of discussion will be finalizing a plan for when racing can resume behind closed doors and potential funding aid for the PMU.

After holding all meetings behind closed doors from Mar. 13-and some as early as late February-all racing in France was suspended from Mar. 17 through initially Apr. 15 in response to the coronavirus outbreak. That return date was later extended. On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron prolonged the country's mandatory lockdown until May 11, and he has placed a ban on large public gatherings through at least July 11. As of Wednesday morning there were over 103,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in France, and 15,729 deaths.

Clement said all possibilities have been put on the table when it comes to what the resumption of racing might look like, but he said it all hinges on the outcome of Tuesday's meeting between racing authorities France Galop and Le Trot and the government's minister of agriculture Didier Guillaume and minister of public action and accounts Gerald Darmanin.

“We're all very hopeful we could return to racing towards the end of the confinement, which is May 11,” Clement said, noting that extra races could be added to make up for lost time. “The plan could be, instead of eight races a day to run 10 races a day, and the [pattern] races are likely to be delayed a month, with the French Guineas' being in early June and the French Derby and French Oaks in early July, and all the preps will be moved accordingly.”

Clement said the concept of keeping racing away from Paris, the home of the French Guineas and the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, had been floated, but that nothing was yet set in stone.

“All kinds of options have been discussed and one of those has been to stay away from Paris, but nothing has been decided,” he said. “The West has not been hit too hard and there could be more racing in Deauville, but there is no definite plan right now. But to be honest, we'll adapt. We've always adapted and we will again. If there is no racing in Paris and they move races elsewhere, we'll adapt. There are good guys working on this and there is good talk between the professionals and [France Galop] on what is a suitable program.

“The main thing is to get going quickly. We have all these horses in training and we believe that with having an activity that is outside we can be very disciplined with social distancing and follow all the precautions. We can handle it in a safe way.”

A hurdle that the French industry will have to overcome is a sharp dive in betting revenue resulting from the cancellation of racing. Clement pointed out that 90% of bets taken through the PMU come at physical site like on the racecourse or in the many PMU shops located in cafes, bars and restaurants. Those options are, of course, right now unavailable, and even when lockdown and social distancing rules are eased, people will not flood immediately back into such places.

Clement said the ideal situation would be that the government would extend a two to three month lifeline to the PMU.

“We're hopeful the government can provide some funding and there will be as small a cut [to purses] as possible,” he said. “If the government gave us two to three months' income on betting, that would guarantee the purses through the end of the year at 100%, so that would be the ideal situation.”

Clement said online wagering on international racing has been bringing in around $3-million daily during the shutdown, a drop in the bucket compared to the typical $20- to $25-million daily.

“There are around 10,000 flat and jumps horses in training and about 20,000 trotters in France,” Clement said. “Around 40% of these, especially the trotters, are owned by the trainers so the purses are the main income for a lot of those trainers. We're not forgetting the owners, but we need a strong purse structure to support these people or there will be a lot of people in trouble. We need a positive message for the breeders, too, because we're going to be buying their crops later in the year but we need a good message about the purse structure.”

“Next Tuesday is a very important meeting with the budget minister and the agriculture minister,” Clement reiterated. “I wish we could handle our future differently but at the moment we need a bit of oxygen to secure the purses. Betting is going to be low the first three or four months, so I'm reluctantly optimistic they'll understand that the worst message would be running for very poor money. We need funding to get the machine going again and then I'm confident the horse racing family, as always, will bounce back. We have a good system in France and we want to get the show back on the road.”