- After two months of confinement, the Strasbourg-Hoerdt racecourse has received authorization to resume its activities
- Three races which were to be held in Wissembourg will be organized there
- Next meeting, May 16, will be without spectators, according to strict sanitary rules
You will have to show your white credentials, Saturday May 16, to enter the Strasbourg-Hoerdt racecourse. After two months of suspension due to containment, the horses will return, but not the spectators. In addition to the closed session, the specifications of the National Federation of Horse Sports limit to two the number of accompanying persons per horse, who must be pre-registered.
"The temperature will be taken at the entrance, and people who have more than 38 ° C will not be able to pass," adds Lucien Matzinger, president of the racing company of Strasbourg. The changing rooms have been refurbished to leave 1.50 m distance between each rider. Everyone will wear a mask, some jockeys have even said they will keep it on during the race. "
A hole in the budget
Masked races are a very unusual situation, as is the absence of an audience: meetings at the racetrack usually attract several hundred spectators. "Only sixty people will be present in the organizers' area, and 60 to 70 people in the box area", describes Lucien Matzinger.
The resumption of the races, after May 11, was authorized by the prefecture of Bas-Rhin and by the town hall of Hoerdt. "This start of the school year is a bit special, but we are still looking forward to it," says the organizer. The training of the horses could continue, but it has been two months since they ran and there will be a lot of runners on May 16 Since the suspension of races at the national level on March 17, five races have been canceled, for a shortfall of around 30,000 euros for the racetrack.
An expected return to betting
Some canceled races may be made up at the next meetings, but activity will remain limited in the weeks to come. "For one or two months, we will practically run at a loss, but it was necessary to restart the machine for the professionals of the sector", explains the president of the Strasbourg racing company.
Including in particular a resumption of betting at tobacconists, which had also been suspended, he hopes to attract a new audience of players deprived of sports betting by confinement.
Races in Reims, not Nancy
In the meantime, not all racetracks will be reopened.
"The national organizer France Galop has decided not to run on 2nd category racetracks," says Lucien Matzinger. The Strasbourg racecourse will thus host three meetings originally planned for Wissembourg.
Another regional center in the Grand-Est, with those of Strasbourg and Reims, the Nancy racecourse has decided to postpone its reopening. Mentioning the risk for staff "to run as close to the deconfinement date", he underlines on Facebook the difficulty "of bringing together enough volunteers to respect, and ensure compliance with the particularly strict specifications" of the federation. The two trotting meetings planned for May in Nancy will therefore take place in Reims.
When will the public be able to attend the races again? "Major festivals and events with a large audience will not be able to take place at least until mid-July next," warned Emmanuel Macron on April 13. In Strasbourg, the racetrack ends its season on June 28, so it won't be until September.
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- Covid 19
- Coronavirus
- Lorraine
- Horse riding
- Deconfinement
- Reims
- Nancy