Riders, trainers and breeders wearing horse-head masks and blowing trumpets protested outside the Italian parliament on Thursday against fierce subsidy cuts threatening the future of horse racing.
Demonstrators rallied in central Rome to demand the government review its decision to dramatically cut funding for racecourses and prize money, saying the sport is in financial straits and risks total collapse.
“Horse racing in Italy is in peril, it’s dying off, and at least 50,000 people risk losing their jobs,” said Sandro Moscati, deputy head of the National Trotting Horse Breeders Association.
There have been no races in Italy since January 1, when all areas of the sport joined together to strike against the cuts, imposed as the country slips into recession and Rome struggles to bring its unwieldy debt under control.
All 41 racecourses across the country have closed, forcing runners who regularly come from across Europe to race to look elsewhere.
Agriculture Minister Mario Catania has promised to aid the sector, but slammed the strike as senseless and said that considering Italy’s financial woes, “it is clear that the horse racing sector will have to tighten its belt”.
State funds for the sector are being cut by 40 per cent, protesters say.
The tension on Thursday rose as demonstrators waving placards reading “Horse Racing Killers!” threw eggs and firecrackers at police manning the protest.
Decked out in blue T-shirts reading “Save Italian Racing”, adopted after UK-based jockey Frankie Dettori wore one to a major international meeting last month, the protesters said the whole system needed to be changed.
Italy’s racing governing body Assi is accused of “making a hash of things by racking up big debts and ignoring the obvious fact that betting numbers have fallen sharply over the past few years,” said rider Tommaso Gusani.
Around 150 protesters broke into the Assi office in Rome at the start of January in an attempt to prevent the broadcasting of foreign races.
According to the Italian gambling authorities, betting on horses fell 20 per cent last year compared to 2010, with punters placing just 1.37 billion euros ($1.75 billion) and spectator stands at tracks left increasingly empty.
“No-one goes to the races anymore. People have got the idea that it’s a seedy place full of drug dealers and corruption, but it’s not. There’s a great family atmosphere,” 20-year-old show-jumper Silvia Olivieri said.
Giadda Menato, 21, who had travelled from Milan to join the protest, said there was more at risk than “the end of legal racing”.
“Lots of the horses will come to a sticky end, and those which don’t will probably be raced illegally. It’s already happening in Sicily,” she said.
The National Zoomafia Observatory has called on the government to prevent organised crime from profiting from the crisis through illegal races, a business it says is worth around a billion euros a year.
There is also concern that should the sector collapse, some may rid themselves of the horses by selling their meat.
Organisers said Thursday’s protest in which around 600 people took part would not be their last.
On Sunday, protesters raced 20 horses along the seafront in Naples, much to the bemusement of passing tourists.
Horse racing in Italy dates back to ancient Rome, when hordes of spectators would gather to watch riotous and often deadly chariot races. Today, the biggest crowds turn out for the Palio di Siena, where jockeys race bareback.
AFP AAP TURF
