THIS article should have been about the last important flat meeting of the French season and the possibility of Aidan O’Brien taking his record number of Grade/Group 1 wins to 28.

Sadly, last Sunday, the afternoon turned into a fiasco after the first race when a group of owners, breeders and trainers called “Sauvons le Galop” (Let’s save racing) blocked the entrance to the paddock. They were protesting by what they considered to be an unfair cost cutting budget which was to be voted on the following day at a France Galop board meeting.