IT is going to be a challenging year for France Galop. Edouard de Rothschild is back at the helm after a break of four years and he looks much more hands-on than he was for his previous mandates when he was also carrying out a business career as well as finding time for his passion of show jumping.

There is also a new managing director at headquarters and Olivier Delloye took up his duties in mid-March after a previous highly successful 10-year career in a similar position at the sales company Arqana.

BOOMING

Betting turnover is not exactly booming like the rest of the French economy and there are budget restraints but the New Longchamp project is moving along rapidly and on time and budget.

The old grandstands have been demolished and there was one “April Fool” (Poisson d’Avril) joke which suggested that there had been an error and the new track would be left-handed.

The main Longchamp races have been distributed between Chantilly, Saint-Cloud and Deauville where the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and Pouliches will be run on May 15th.