Au-Delà des Pistes: Retiring Racehorses in France

In French, Au-Delà des Pistes means “beyond the racetrack,” which is exactly what the organization envisions for French racehorses at their end of their careers: a life beyond the racetrack. Our aftercare correspondent Diana Pikulski checks in with some of French racing's leading voices about the importance of the effort to find homes for horses after their retirement.

Au-Delà des Pistes was founded in 2016 to facilitate the retirement, retraining, and placement of thoroughbred racehorses in France. It's well connected team of advisors hit the ground running and in a short period of time accomplished a great deal and secured a number if vital partnerships. We sat down with three of the organization's key players to discuss their remarkable success.

Astute, driven and well-connected, the board of directors quickly partnered with Arqana and Longines. In April 2019, they reached a landmark agreement for funding with France Galop which gave their organization a percentage of the racing handle, allowing them to expand their services and work towards one day being able to provide a safe landing for every Thoroughbred racehorse in need of options at retirement.

Au-Delà des Pistes set out to create a system for trainers and owners to find easy and quick retirement options for Thoroughbreds who had run their last race and an efficient way for every rider wishing to adopt a Thoroughbred access to the right horse. The goal was to get as many horses as possible placed in second careers as sport horses, while increasing people's awareness of the versatility of the Thoroughbred.