The missions of the Cheval Français

The “Société du Demi-Sang” (Half-bred Society) was created on October 21st 1864 and is known as the “Société d’Encouragement à l’élevage du Cheval Français” (SECF) (Society for the Encouragement of French Horse Breeding) under the 1901 associations law. Its main mission is to work on furthering French harness racing and protecting the French trotting horse and its specific characteristics. Also known by the name LeTROT, it has the status of Parent Company for harness racing in France.

Its main missions are:

• to encourage breeding and improve the trotter horse breed in France by organising harness races;
• to be responsible for the whole of the industry sector which depends on harness racing;
• to submit the harness racing code and any amendments to it for approval from the Minister of Agriculture;
• to monitor and ensure that the code is respected;
• to take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that races are well organised
• to make sure that races and training for trotters are well organised ;
• to submit proposals concerning breeding policies to the Minister of Agriculture ;
• to grant licenses for racing, training, riding or driving, with the agreement of the Home Secretary ;
• to create the race meeting calendar for harness races which will be used by betting operators outside of the hippodromes;
• after consulting with the Regional Harness Racing Councils, allocating funds for prize money from the budget;
• working with the Regional Harness Racing Councils to define the harness racing programme;
• defining conditions and rates for harness racehorse breeders’ bonuses – these conditions and rates must be approved by the Minister of Agriculture;
• paying bonuses to the harness racehorse breeders;
• after consulting with France Galop, to give the provisional race meeting calendar from the Regional Federations to the National Race Federation;
• to compete in actions on a technical and social level or concerning professional training in racing, breeding or selecting trotting horses; these actions are taken under the authority of the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of the Budget;
• to consider any question asked by the Minister of Agriculture or the Minister of the Budget.