French Prize-Money Cut by €20m Annually From July

[Wandering Eyes]

France Galop has announced a “major recovery plan” in a bid to shore up the country's racing industry in the face of falling turnover from the PMU.

From July 1, prize-money will be reduced by €10.5 million for the remainder of 2025 – representing a drop of 3.6 per cent. From 2026, there will be savings of €20.3 million on prize-money, a drop of 6.9 per cent. Group 1 races will however remain unaffected. 

France Galop president Guillaume de Saint-Seine presented the changes to his committee and board on May 20. A statement released by France Galop pointed to the cuts also being made on the management and administrative side, amounting to a further €20 million, following a year-on-year drop of 4 per cent in betting turnover. 

It read, “The economic effort will be gradual and shared between the parent company and all stakeholders, both professional and institutional. On the one hand, France Galop will evolve its operational model and costs. On the other hand, the level of incentives will be adjusted. The sum of these actions — both recovery and management — will enable the sector to return to balance by 2029.

“This plan is imperative, at a time when the PMU's trajectory has been on a downward trend for several months and when the new actions undertaken by the betting operator (particularly in the sports sector) will not bear immediate fruit.”

Planned changes on the Flat include reducing owners' premiums in Group 1 races to 20 per cent from 33 per cent. All Group 2, Group 3, Listed, conditions and maiden races will face a reduction in prize-money of 8.5 per cent. Prize-money for handicaps and claimers will fall by 4 per cent.

Prize-money for French jump races will drop by 7 per cent for all Graded, Listed, conditions and maiden races, while handicaps and claimers will see a 3 per cent reduction.

Further cuts are to be made in the scrapping of transport allowances for PMH races, along with the removal of breeders' premiums for French-bred horses that win abroad, and no rescheduling of races that have had to be cancelled. 

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