“Come on, everyone to the club! » Slender and muscular silhouettes, the dogs enter their starting box one by one, barking. They know that their prey is close: a fake rabbit that will be launched at full speed on a rail with the sound of a lawnmower. The 510 meters of circular track will be covered in thirty-one seconds, or nearly 60 kilometers per hour. It is gray and windy at the Grillemont race track, in La Chapelle-Blanche-Saint-Martin, near Loches (Indre-et-Loire). The judge announces the races from her watchtower. The dogs are released. “Go for it, Soprano!” » “Pokémon, don’t let go!” » : their masters shout, hoping to galvanize them. “Given its morphology and nature, the greyhound is a dog that needs to run while pursuing its prey. No need for shouts or whips,” explains Alain-Simon Vermot, president of the Touraine Sports Greyhound Club.
France currently has twenty thousand greyhounds old enough to race: among them, none hunts – the practice of hunting with greyhounds has been prohibited since 1844 – and barely three hundred frequent the seven dog tracks still in operation. Because British sport, which developed in France in the 1960s, is losing momentum. This Sunday in March, only thirty-five dogs are registered for the tests.
Coming from Clermont-Ferrand, Didier Fournier, in his fifties, wears a red tunic matching that of his animal, a greyhound, an English breed renowned for its speed and agility, a veritable Formula 1 canine that he supplies with vegetables in the morning and some croquettes in the evening. “It’s not just speed that matters. The dog must know how to position itself and not be afraid of being pushed around. It’s quite a job. » To qualify for the French racing championship, scheduled for May 4 and 5 in Montauban, his dog must complete three official races across the country. Behind him, Gaëtan Marand, 20, is an agricultural equipment welder and volunteer firefighter. His old car is covered with stickers bearing the image of his champions: three black whippets – smaller than greyhounds. “Thanks to them, on weekends, I become a coach of high-level athletes. »
Disqualified for lack of “fair play”
Pascal and Anne Aubert move around on the track to collect the droppings of their furry athletes. “We have two French champions and a Golden Greyhound in Belgium, specifies Anne Aubert. This morning, one of them was disqualified for barking too much at a rival. » “We will say that he lacked fair play”, said her husband. These dogs are part of their family. “When we were able to buy a house in 2009, my husband gave me a greyhound for our 10e wedding anniversary. Now we have seven, who live freely, sleep on the sofa and sometimes kick us out of the marital bed,” laughs Anne Aubert.
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