French Racing to Cut Prize Money Beginning July 1

France Galop’s administrative council has agreed to a plan to cut prize-money by €20 million (approximately $22.68 million) per year in an effort to bring the sport back to a balanced budget by 2029, as the receipts from betting on the sport have failed to keep pace with expectations. 

The cuts will be enacted from July 1, although group 1s on the flat will be exempt, with €10.5 million coming off the total for the second six months of 2025—a drop of 3.6% compared to what was planned across the whole yea—rising to €20.3 million (6.9%) for the full year in 2026. 

France Galop paid a record €293 million in prize-money and premiums for owners and breeders in 2024, and while there will inevitably be pain felt across the training, ownership and breeding sectors, the governing body has pledged to match the cuts in prize-funds with savings from its own budget. 

As recently as December, France Galop pledged to maintain prize levels for 2025, choosing to run a €15 million budget deficit for the year in the face of the former monopoly betting operator Pari Mutuel Urbain undershooting its expected contribution to the sport by €18 million for 2024. 

But with betting turnover down another 4% year on year for the opening months of the year—a potential loss of €35 million in revenue spread across France Galop and the trotting authorities—a press release described president Guillaume de Saint-Seine’s plan to kickstart the sport’s economic fortunes as “imperative”.

The communique pointed not only to lower-than-forecast turnover at the PMU in terms of racing betting, but disappointing returns on new sports gambling products.

Last week, the PMU’s director general Emmanuelle Malecaze-Doublet announced she would be leaving her post at the end of the summer after three years in charge, against a backdrop of disquiet at the operator’s performance and a barely concealed turf war between Le Trot and France Galop over the maintenance of the historic 50-50 split in betting receipts. 

While group 1s on the flat will keep their full levels of prize money, albeit with diminished owners’ premiums, the cuts will be felt at all levels of the sport below. 

There will be an 8.5% cut to other group and listed races on the flat, as well as conditions races and maidens, with a smaller cut of 4% for those races lower down the pyramid in an effort to reduce the impact on smaller trainers whose main income is earned on the track. 

Over jumps, all graded and listed races will have seven per cent trimmed from their prize funds.