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I am from France and work with harness horses.British sportsmen may found this sport very strange.Is there someone who has ever seen these races in England or in Ireland? Can you bet on them?Are there any people who are interested to watch French racing on TV (thoroughbred or harness horses)
Big kisses from France
There are a limited number of harness racing meetings in the UK but it is not a popular sport and never will be as popular as in France and Belgium.
It’s pretty popular in certain parts of West Wales. Then again, so are all sorts of strange goings-on.
Harness racing in the UK is a b*****d
ised version of the sport which bears little relation to the sport on the European mainland, and nearly all the horses are "ambleurs" so wouldn’t get to run there anyway.I believe that the harness racing authorities in the UK and Ireland are not even recognised abroad.
Most racing fans in this country have little idea of how big this branch of the sport is in other European countries. As you will know, the number of  trotting races in most European countries greatly exceeds the number of thoroughbred ones.
But we are an insular country!
When is Jag de Bellouet due back on the track?
(Edited by Venusian at 10:25 pm on Dec. 6, 2006)
Bienvenue DanCarter (I presume you are an All Blacks fan – what happened to ‘Allez les Bleus?’).
As other posters have mentioned, harness racing is a totally minority sport over here as can be seen from the British Harness Racing’s website at http://www.bhrc.org.uk
No trotting is televised over here, but we do follow the big French thoroughbred races in detail.
Could you (or anyone else) answer me a question?
I was looking at a trotting card at Cagnes-sur-Mer in the summer and noticed that many races where filled solely with horses who’s names started with the same letter. How does this occur? Is it age-related?
Mike
Hi Mike,
Spot on re age-related.  French rules say:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Article 9 (c):
Les règlements de stud-book peuvent fixer des règles complémentaires pour l’attribution et les changements de noms des équidés inscrits.
En l’absence de règles spécifiques, le nom des équidés ayant des origines certifiées nés la même année commence par la même lettre attribuée année après année dans l’ordre alphabétique en excluant les lettres W, X, Y et Z. La lettre de l’année 2002 est O.
Lorsque le règlement du livre ou du stud-book le prévoit, il peut être modifié sur demande du propriétaire et, le cas échéant, avec l’accord du naisseur, dans la mesure où l’animal concerné n’a pas encore reproduit ni participé àdes courses ou des compétitions équestres officielles. <br><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
http://www.le-site-cheval.com/identific … gines.html
best regards
wit
Ta Wit.
I struggle to see any benefits of this system, especially for commentators, but being France you can be sure that there is a bureau administratif employing several thousand people to make sure this works efficiently!
Mike
A few years ago i went to one of these meetings in west wales. Somewhere near Lampeter…in a field
There were bookies and so on and a pretty big crowd, but didnt look to me to be…ahem… a great betting medium
But fun all the same and pretty well organised. Think there were about 12 races on the card
<br>
One of the meetings at Tregarron (probably what you are referring to, clivex) has been televised on S4C, fwiw.
It was there. Very scenic but not exactly easy to get too.
heres an interesting link
I went once or twice when I lived in Norway. I only went because we worked across the road from the course in Oekern, Oslo.
It really was dull to watch. But the best (?) part of it was that each week the Norwegian form of the Scoop6 was based on trotting so one could gamble in some form or another. I think it was called something like V6.
But it used to be whether Ulf Thorosen was riding or not. If he were then back it. Then one year he was crowned by the Norwegians as the world’s best jockey. And you thought that Britain is insular!
- Total Posts 36
Quote: from Venusian on 11:24 pm on Dec. 6, 2006[br]Harness racing in the UK is a b*****d<br>ised version of the sport which bears little relation to the sport on the European mainland, and nearly all the horses are "ambleurs" so wouldn’t get to run there anyway.
I believe that the harness racing authorities in the UK and Ireland are not even recognised abroad.
Most racing fans in this country have little idea of how big this branch of the sport is in other European countries. As you will know, the number of trotting races in most European countries greatly exceeds the number of thoroughbred ones.
But we are an insular country!
When is Jag de Bellouet due back on the track?
(Edited by Venusian at 10:25 pm on Dec. 6, 2006)<br>
<br> <br> Jag de Bellouet will be back in Vincennes on the 23 of December.He will run a mounted race and the price is 50000 euros for the winner.
I believe trotting is popular in Oz and NZ.
The idea of restraining a horse’s speed, then seeing  how fast it can trot, kind of blows my mind. What’s the point?
I’m not knocking people who enjoy it, or the sport. Just saying it baffles me. Also, it seems to me strange that its’ popular in France.
One of the reasons I love the French is that they’re mad ***, and I don’t associate them with the idea of restraint.
See the way they play Rugby Union? While our lad at the back of a scrum might spend 5 seconds or more looking round and trying to trick the opposition about where he’s going to pass the ball, the Fench can’t wait  to get  running with the ball again. I’ve we’ve improved in that department, but it was striking some years back. ÂÂÂ
(Edited by Grimes at 6:36 pm on Dec. 7, 2006)
The idea of restraining a horse’s speed, then seeing how fast it can trot, kind of blows my mind. What’s the point?
Walking is an Olympic sport! (Not the way I do it though).
Mike<br>
There’s trotting here in Malta every week.  Been once and not really bothered about going again.  The horses are largely poor French and Scandinavian-bred animals that aren’t good enough to run there.  It’s simply not really a spectacle.  If anyone thinks Irish overrounds are bad they should go to Marsa.  One 10 runner race was 308% on the board of one of the 2 bookies there.  There are also lots of doubts about exactly how genuine the racing is.  Someone I know was invited there a few years ago and when he asked why the rags were as as low as 10/1 the reply was ‘because if they were chalked up at 33/1 they would win’!! ÂÂÂ
"…But it used to be whether Ulf Thorosen was riding or not. If he were then back it. Then one year he was crowned by the Norwegians as the world’s best jockey. And you thought that Britain is insular!"
Malc, I’ll think you’ll find that Thoresen was driving the horses, not riding them, and was crowned best driver, not jockey.
He won the World Driving Championship on a number of occasions, including when held in Norway, against drivers from all over the world. What’s insular about that?
I’ve followed UK harness racing a bit since I first attended a meeting at my local(ist) track Tir Prince in Colwyn Bay – saw some heats of the Sire Stakes series for 2yos, backed one winner out of two, Frisco Knight or Ima Electric, one won one lost but not sure in what order.
York stage some on the racecourse there and so do Musselburgh, as mentioned above it’s pretyt big in Wales and Scotland has a fair bit of it too.
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