By Emma Berry
To the casual observer at Longchamp on Thursday evening there would not have appeared to be too much wrong with French racing. A lively, sell-out crowd of 10,000 was on course for two reasons: top-class horse racing and an after-party which shimmered through to the small hours while the Eiffel Tower sparkled in the distance.
The 'JeuXdi' initiative of post-racing DJ sets is not new. For some years now Thursday nights at France's flagship track have been filled with young revellers. The difference this week was that for the first time, under a little tinkering of the French black-type programme, the race card featured not just handicap fare but two Group 1 contests and a Group 3.
What France Galop's head of race programming Pierre Laperdrix could not possibly have dreamed of when moving those races away from their traditional Sunday slot was that the meeting would be blessed with last year's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Daryz. In the newly christened Prix Aga Khan IV, the Francis Graffard-trained colt scorched home under the evening sun to take the race named in honour of the man whose pursuit of excellence in the field of thoroughbred bloodlines had led to his very existence.
With a strong supporting equine cast in attendance, the swathes of notably youthful racegoers queued for betting terminals and stood five deep on the rail, camera-phones in hand, for the night's major contests.
Cheering the runners in the Prix Vicomtesse Vigier | Emma Berry
Hours earlier, however, four of France Galop's most senior officials had convened in a suite on the top floor of the grandstand to discuss with a handful of foreign journalists some of the issues facing the French industry and the new initiatives which have been launched in response.
“We are in survival mode,” said deputy chief executive officer Guillaume Hernberger with startling candour.
It is no secret that €20 million had to be cut from prize-money this year across the French programme amid falling returns from the Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU). For a long time, owners and breeders in Britain have cast an envious eye across the Channel at the purses attached to French races, while the lure of the generous premiums on top for horses born and raised in France has proved irresistible to many an overseas participant. While the premiums system is not under threat, France Galop president Guillaume de Saint-Seine – a successful owner-breeder himself – admits that radical action is now required to shore up prize-money levels. To that end, he recently announced to stakeholders that an independent task force had been formed, charged with putting forward suggestions for a more cost-effective future for French racing's governing body.
“All the work that is done has one objective: it's to maintain the prize-money,” said de Saint-Seine.
“The decrease in the revenue from the PMU has two origins. The first one is, unfortunately, a certain trend of a decrease in betting [on racing] because of the attraction of sports betting. But also, the PMU has been less present in the media – less advertising and less of a presence with its customers.”
In December 2023, de Saint-Seine was elected to succeed Edouard de Rothschild as president and the following month Elie Hennau was appointed managing director, replacing Olivier Delloye, who has returned to work for leading French sales house Arqana. Following the sudden departure of Hennau in February after only two years in the job, changes in the governance structure of France Galop have been made, with long-serving official Henri Pouret remaining deputy CEO in charge of racing and regulation, and Guillaume Hernberger being brought in as deputy CEO on the commercial side.
Queueing to place a bet at Longchamp | Emma Berry
“Basically, the objective is wide-ranging. Overall, we have to think about racing in a different way and not depend 92% or 93% on the receipts from betting,” de Saint-Seine said. He is expecting the first report from the task force, which consists of five “volunteers” who have experience in both racing and the business world, at Tuesday's board meeting.
He continued, “When there are more than 10 people in the room, it's difficult to work together. Hence the five, plus of course the two deputy CEOs, Guillaume and Henri, who have been closely associated with not only the preparation work, but also the definition of the key objectives. The first phase is really on the model, the cost structure and cost base of France Galop.
“I don't want to anticipate the work of the task force, but I think that one of the aims is to indeed have a fresh eye. I have been challenged, to use an understatement, by people saying, 'Ah, but you're depriving the board and the committee of its powers.' But 56 people sit on the committee. How do you work with 56 people? How do you work with people who are also representatives of their own constituency? That's clearly not the right format. I didn't want to have people affiliated with an electoral mandate.”
United stance required
It will of course be the board that has the final say over the task force's recommendations so it remains to be seen just how radical any changes are allowed to be. There are echoes in de Saint-Seine's words of the situation in Britain, where Lord Allen was appointed chair of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) on the understanding that he would be allowed to appoint an independent board. When he was blocked in making those changes as he wished, Allen walked only six months after assuming his role. The BHA remains in stasis while a new chair is sought, though Brant Dunshea was finally confirmed as chief executive 14 months after the departure of his predecessor Julie Harrington.
Despite what is clearly a concerning situation in France, de Saint-Seine says that he remains “very confident” that the task force will find ways to draw new investment for French racing and that the sport's participants will demonstrate enough of a unified approach to allow for change.
“The economic situation we are in today is a unique opportunity to change because people understand that we are at the end of a certain model and we cannot continue like this. They are much more willing to make efforts or to make changes because of the situation,” he said.
“In broad lines, we're not going to turn the system upside down in terms of the economic scheme. And when you see that Sheikh Mansour has bought Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard, when you see the investments made, and the fact that we have Calandagan winning in Japan, rated at the end of last year the best horse in the world, we are very competitive, and it shows. The increase of the number of horses in training in Chantilly is another good example because of the success of our trainers.”
He continued, “I think that the energy that the people at the task force and at the board are putting into this thinking and the reform that we have to do makes me very confident that we'll find a way.”
Increasing commercial opportunities
The president is backed in his mission for fresh investment in French racing by Hernberger, whom he appointed three months ago from his former role at AFASEC, which is both the French racing school and a human resources department for the wider industry
“I don't like the word reinvent, but we need to adapt racing to the new world we're in, in order to get it back to the heart of the French population,” he said. “And a tangible example of that beyond the JeuXdi is what we have done in La Concorde.”
Hernberger refers to the successful 'chevaux dans la ville' initiative of last September, which saw the Place de la Concorde in Paris transformed into a parade ring, with horses and riders from AFASEC among other displays by Au-dela des Pistes, France's programme for the retraining of racehorses.
“The audience on our racecourses was up almost 10% last year,” he added. “By attracting people to the racecourse, we are sure that this will help to redevelop betting.”
The racecourse remained packed hours after racing | Emma Berry
He points also to how racing is missing a trick when it comes to merchandise. The French Open is currently in full flow at the Roland Garros Stadium not far from Longchamp, and the tennis merchandising opportunities stretch as far as a stand at St Pancras station in London so as to snare those about to board the Eurostar for Paris.
The garden area of Longchamp which hosts the JeuXdi parties in the shadow of the stand has the distinctive skyline of La Défense, Paris's business district, as a backdrop, and companies therein have already been targeted to take up hospitality options during the Thursday evenings.
“This is a way to diversify our revenue and pass this survival mode we are in,” Hernberger said, indicating that nine days of hospitality through those summer evenings has brought in €500,000 to the Longchamp coffers.
“Racing in France is not a sports federation, we are classified as agriculture, so our DNA is related to how we improve the horse. We are changing this mindset to accept this idea of 'sportainment'. We are a sport. We need to promote the athletes: the first athlete is the horse, and the second is the jockey, and obviously behind that the trainers.”
There is a long road ahead, not just for France Galop but also for its European neighbours. But when it comes to those primary athletes, there could have been no finer example of a superstar in the making than the performance of Daryz on that balmy May evening. He and his stable-mate Calandagan were two of the top-three-rated horses in the world last year and they are both still full of running. When it comes to showcasing all that French racing has to offer, that's a good place to start.
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