France Galop blasts 'shocking' mass defections from combined race at Lyon as trainers stage Saturday boycott

The row over France Galop's newly adopted policy of consolidating conditions races that do not attract sufficient runners has taken a new turn after a glut of defections from Saturday's meeting at Lyon-Parilly.

Since January 1, article 51 of the Code des Courses has demanded automatic amalgamation of pairs of races for fillies and colts below Pattern level when it becomes obvious that one or both will attract a small field.

Nine horses had been left in both the Prix Desir de Mai and Prix Carrus this weekend, but with only seven standing their ground in each race, they were consolidated at final declarations on Thursday morning. 

By Thursday evening ten of the 14 declarations for what is now a single-entity race were listed as non-runners, leading France Galop's vice president for the Flat, Arnaud de Seyssel, to characterise events as an orchestrated boycott he called "simply shocking".

In a statement, he said: "The protest movement that has emerged today, involving the mass defection of horses entered in two races at Lyon – races which have now been fused [into one] completely legitimately under article 51 owing to insufficient numbers of runners – is simply shocking.

Longchamp played host to the amalgamated Prix du Louvre on ThursdayCredit: Edward Whitaker

"I want to underline that the French racing programme offers a variety of opportunities throughout the year, and is the fruit of the rigorous and reflective work of the teams at France Galop. This programme is conceived specifically to allow the preparation of every horse, whatever their level and their future objective may be."

The introduction of article 51, following consultation with relevant professional bodies, is aimed at reducing the number of "failed" races in the calendar, which France Galop determines to be any race attracting fewer than eight runners.

Seyssel added: "It seems to me necessary to remind everyone that prize-money is largely financed by the receipts from betting on racing, and everyone knows that races with the most runners are the most attractive to punters. In the current climate, the fight to limit the number of failed races is a priority, and we must find solutions to achieve this objective."

France Galop expects to run a budget deficit of €15 million in 2025 owing to declining betting turnover at the PMU.

It remains unclear as to whether the race at Lyon has fallen victim to coordinated action, as Seyssel suggests, with the activation of article 51 at the moment of final declarations cited by several trainers as the reason why they later withdrew their runners.

The controversy surrounding article 51 first arose when two Class 1 races at Longchamp – races which have often served as lesser Classic trials – were amalgamated ahead of Thursday's card, although on that occasion the fusion of the two races took place 24 hours before final declarations, and only four fillies did not stand their ground the following morning.

Read these next:

'There are no racing people left at France Galop' - former president hits out as French Classic prep races are combined 

Race on Southwell's Easter Sunday card abandoned due to lack of runners with trainers critical of prize-money 

Arc robustly denies accusations of declaring horses owned by subsidiary company in order to divide races 

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.