France Galop

The G1 Prix Jean Prat will now be sponsored by Haras d'Etreham after a partnership between the historic stud farm and France Galop was announced on Wednesday. The 2021 edition of the 1400-metre race at Deauville will be held on July 11. "We have been looking for several years to sponsor a high-level Flat race and are really delighted to be able to partner with the Prix Jean Prat, the only Group 1 over the 1400-metre distance exclusively reserved for 3-year-olds in Europe," said Haras d'Etreham Managing Director Nicolas de...

French-based trainer Andrea Marcialis, already serving a six-month ban for allegedly operating a shadow training operation, is now likely to be on the sidelines until April 2025 after an investigation by France Galop stewards led to charges against the 35-year-old for various instances of medication violations and shadow operations, Racing Post reports. The cumulative ban for the four additional charges is three years and nine months. Marcialis picked up his initial ban in December of last year after stewards deemed he and his sister, Elisabetta Marcialis, had conspired to train...

Godolphin has been named the leading owner in France for 2020 by France Galop. Their 77-strong French string, trained primarily by Andrew Fabre and Alex Pantall ran 281 times with 60 wins. They earned $2,235,078, just $1,707 more than White Birch Farm at €2,233,371. Godolphin's British string's French successes of over €600,000 are not included in these totals. Peter Brant's White Birch Farm celebrated a win in the G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe with Sottsass (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) last season. Third on the list is His Highness The...

Due to a better-than-expected profit margin generated by the PMU in November and December, France Galop will redistribute €15-million in prizemoney and premiums for races between May 11 and Dec. 31, 2020 that experienced purse cuts. Prizemoney in France dipped by 20% in 2020. The redistribution will take place this week, and France Galop has added a special condition to races taking place from Jan. 28 through Feb. 9 that ensures the additional earnings don't preclude horses from races that they're currently being declared for. With PMU outlets in cafes...

The national rollout of race sectional timing at all premium Flat and National Hunt racecourses in France began this month, France Galop and its partner McLloyd announced on Monday. The McLloyd system will be implemented at all French national meetings beginning in February and is the first country to offer such broad coverage. The technology was tested in 2019 at ParisLongchamp, Chantilly, Deauville and more recently in Auteuil. Lyon-La-Soie and Marseille-Vivaux were added to the timing network on Jan. 14 and 15, respectively. Cagnes-sur-Mer joined the fold on Jan. 18....

All races in France since May 11, 2020 which carried a reduced purse due to the COVID-19 pandemic will receive part of their original prizemoney back in the second half of January, France Galop announced on Monday. At the end of 2020, France Galop's funding budget was €185 million instead of €248 million, a 25% decrease due to the two-month period racing ceased in France during the first French lockdown. In August, the France Galop Board of Directors determined that a positive funding result-if there was one--at the end of...

During the final meeting of the year, the Board of Directors of France Galop adopted the 2021 Terms and Conditions, which also includes a change to the weights female jockeys will carry, France Galop announced on Tuesday. Although the administrators are committed to maintaining the 1.5kg weight allowance for Flat female jockeys, after consultation with the Board of the Plate and women jockeys, in response to the renewed request of the Association of Jockeys and the Association of Trainers, some changes were made to the weight system. The changes, beginning...

Jockey Oisin Murphy has been banned from race riding for three months by France Galop stewards as a result of a positive test this summer for cocaine metabolites. The ban will run from Dec. 11, 2020 to Mar. 11, 2021 and has been reciprocated by the British Horseracing Authority. The typical ban in such cases has been six months, but the stewards were persuaded to lessen that after receiving hair sample results and a testimony from Murphy that the positive test arose from an unintentional, environmental contamination. The positive sample...

With PMU betting shops once again closed in French cafes during the national lockdown, France Galop projected during a board meeting on Monday that it could suffer a loss in betting revenue of around €30-million should those closures last through December. France Galop projects its loss per month of lockdown to be €15-million. Four thousand of the country's 13,000 PMU betting shops are currently closed. Betting in France had seen a 15% increase in July and August and a 10% rise in September after the country emerged from its first...

Following a board meeting on Monday, Oct. 12, a stimulus package with the goal of boosting the number of juveniles in training was approved by France Galop. This stimulus package is aimed primarily at reversing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on French racing and to support owners and breeders who wish to invest in France in the future. The main decisions decided upon by the France Galop board are as follows: Increase the owners' premiums for French-bred 2-year-olds from 60% to 70% in 2021, and for French-bred 3-year-olds in...

After a weekend of intensive testing of GAIN's equine feed ranges, batches and individual ingredients, progress has been made in the investigation into the presence of Zilpaterol in the contaminated feeds, the company announced late on Monday evening. The synthetic beta-agonist Zilpaterol, approved for use as a performance-enhancer in some beef production systems outside the EU, was found in some positive tests on horses that had consumed GAIN products in France last week. GAIN stressed that Zilpaterol has never formed part of any formulation in any GAIN animal nutrition ranges....

A handful of positive tests for the prohibited substance Zilpaterol in France has led to an investigation of the products of equine nutrition company GAIN after it was found that all five affected horses had been fed the company's products. Testing of GAIN products subsequently returned positive results for Zilpaterol. Zilpaterol is a synthetic substance used to promote weight gain in cattle. The products in question as stated by France Galop are racehorse cubes, racehorse mix and opti-care balancer. GAIN has advised customers to cease feeding its products while an...