Grand Prix de Paris postponed Flash strike action by betting staff forced the postponement of the Group One Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp today.The meeting in which French Derby runner-up Chichicastenago and the horse who finished fourth that day Okawango were due to clash again was postponed to next Tuesday after unions representing the betting staff and French racing`s governing body France Galop failed to reach an agreement.The staff, who work for PMH (Pari Mutuel Hippodrome) which controls all betting on racing in France, decided to take the sudden action because their appeal to hold talks with France Galop in the past few months about having a payrise had not been granted.The hundreds of staff members called their protest at the start of racing and gathered in the parade ring for about 40 minutes demanding that the managing director of France Galop Louis Romanet come down and meet them.'For five years we at the PMH have not received any sort of payrise,' one of their delegates said. 'That has not been the case with the people employed on the technical side of the racecourse.'It seems logical to us that we at the PMH should also benefit from the financial growth within French racing,' he added.However, chaos reigned as both sides failed to come to any sort of agreement and provoked a furious reaction from the racegoers, of whom around 100 invaded the racetrack itself and blocked the entrance to the track for the horses. - AFP
