28/02/2026
IHP considers it politically and morally unacceptable that a municipal administration should use public resources – even resorting to a loan – to support the resumption of racing at the Caprilli Racecourse in 2026, in a context where the Italian horse racing industry, which is structurally based on the exploitation of horses, is facing a deep and systemic crisis. This decision by the administration follows the recognition by MASAF of the Municipality of Livorno as a “racing operator” for the 2026 season.
According to local media reports, the City Council approved budget amendments related to the management of the facility. During the same debate, a €185,000 loan for extraordinary maintenance was also approved. Figures cited in the council chamber included €613,000 in estimated ordinary expenditure for 2026, €185,000 for extraordinary maintenance, and €52,000 in expected revenue from racing, in addition to €2.5 million already spent on redevelopment.
According to IHP, the crisis affecting racecourses is the consequence of an ethical crisis driven by the growing disaffection of an increasing number of citizens – especially younger generations – toward a model that treats horses as tools and disposable commodities. Horse racing is a system heading toward irreversible decline: this makes it entirely unacceptable for a municipal administration, whose role should be to provide services to citizens, to organize races, particularly by committing public resources.
What is needed instead is a mandatory and publicly funded aftercare system (maintenance, rehoming, and retirement) for horses once their racing careers end.
“Asking the citizens of Livorno to support with public money – even through a loan – an activity that is ethically and economically in decline, and based on the systematic exploitation of horses, is a choice we cannot accept. Local administrations should invest in services, welfare, safety, and redevelopment projects that benefit the community, not in artificially prolonging a model that produces surplus animals and shifts ethical costs onto society,” said Sonny Richichi, President of IHP.
Halt spending commitments related to racing and abandon the approach that ties the sustainability of the Caprilli facility to the resumption of horse racing.
Initiate a public and transparent process to redevelop the area for social, sporting, and cultural purposes without the use of animals, with a clear plan and verifiable timeline.
Adopt an institutional position to ensure that public resources allocated to the sector are redirected toward measures currently lacking: traceability, post-career protection, and the financial responsibility of owners.
IHP calls on local institutions and MASAF not to encourage, directly or indirectly, local “revival” initiatives based on public funding, and instead to open a serious discussion on an orderly transition away from this model and on mandatory protections for horses.
For years, IHP has challenged the narrative that “if racecourses close, horses will go to slaughter”: according to the association, slaughter has always been an outlet for surplus animals in a sector that cannot afford to maintain horses that are no longer competitive. If horse racing were to end, there would be an immediate emergency requiring exceptional measures, but in the medium to long term the continuous production of “surplus” horses would cease.
For this reason, investing public money to keep the circuit active is not “saving a tradition”: it is postponing the problem and continuing to support an economic and ethical system that shifts the costs onto horses and, ultimately, onto citizens.