The German racing authority Deutscher Galopp has released a revised racing programme for the sport to begin behind closed doors from Friday, May 1 at Hannover.
At present the dates have been announced for one race meeting each day to June 15, and they include the first German Classics, the G2 Mehl Mulhens-Rennen (2000 Guineas), which will be run at Cologne on Monday, June 1, followed by the G2 German 1000 Guineas at Dusseldorf on Sunday, June 7, the same day as the Listed Derby Trial.
During that period racing will be run behind closed doors, a move referred to in the announcement on the Deutscher Galopp website as one of the “painful reductions necessary in order to alleviate the substantial loss of revenue for the organisers and to enable the races to take place in the first place.”
Dr Michael Vesper, president of Deutscher Galopp, said, “We are responding to the corona crisis, which has stopped racing since mid-March, taking into account all necessary contact restrictions and requirements. We are in the starting stalls in order to start our races again in a restricted manner and without endangering spectators and racing participants.”
Prize-money will be reduced by 50 per cent for all bar the races run at the minimum value of €3,000.
Deutscher Galopp's managing director Jan Pommer added, “This is a bridging period between the phase with no racing and racing in front of spectators. It will last for as short amount of time as possible and as long as necessary.”
Germany has been one of the least affected by the coronavrius of the major European racing nations, and while Italy and Spain were badly hit in March, the
level of new infections and the dealth toll has started to subside in both of those countries though their citizens remain under lockdown.
The Spanish Jockey Club issued an update on April 8 which indicated that it is working on a revised racing programme in the hope of resuming racing in Madrid in the second half of May or early June, meaning that the country's Guineas equivalents, which are usually run in late April, will be rescheduled.
Jose Hormaeche, president of the Jockey Club Español, told TDN, “It is more likely that it will be June when we start racing again. We are fortunate that 500 horses are in training at the racecourse in Madrid, so there would be no travelling involved, but we will have to wait for restrictions to be lifted in the country first.”
In Italy the current lockdown is due to end on April 13 but looks likely to be extended. No plan has yet been announced in regard to the resumption of racing and the country's first Classics, the G3 Premio Pariolo (2000 Guineas) and G3 Premio Regina Elena (1000 Guineas), will need to be rescheduled from their original date of April 26.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
