Blackmore and Mullins miss out after strike action forces Auteuil abandonment

Rachael Blackmore and Willie Mullins' hopes of Listed success in France ended prematurely on Sunday after racing was dramatically called off at Auteuil.

The meeting was cancelled shortly after the first race should have been run because of an industrial dispute between France Galop and trade union members over salary concerns.

Blackmore had been due to ride the Mullins-trained Your Eyes Only in the Prix Wild Monarch, a Listed contest for unraced three-year-olds.

However, negotiations failed to find agreement by the scheduled start time of the first race as union representatives occupied the paddock in protest.

Trainers approached the representatives shortly after 1pm in an attempt to get racing underway but the meeting was officially called off by France Galop's chief executive Olivier Delloye.

Sky Sports Racing's Katherine Ford said: "It's been on the cards for the last hour or so and Olivier Delloye confirmed it was cancelled.

"The last developments were a group of trainers went to speak to the union representatives who were grouped up in the parade ring, but they failed to convince them to continue working.

"Feelings are running quite high and Delloye said the difficulty now will be to reprogramme this meeting. With the situation still ongoing it'll be difficult to organise racing in the Paris area until they find an agreement with the staff and the unions."

The Auteuil meeting has traditionally served as a key trial day for Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris weekend on May 21 and 22.

The unions involved, which also represent harness racing, will have to continue negotiations with France Galop ahead of a potential rescheduling of the meeting.

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