24/09/2026

No one wants to run the Ippodromo dei Pini in Follonica any longer. The tender through which the municipality was seeking a concessionaire for the next five years has drawn no bidders: not a single offer was received by the deadline. The call for tenders, published in August, provided for a concession with an estimated value of over €4.1 million and a minimum fee of €60,000 a year. Custodianship, utilities and maintenance were to be borne by the operator. The administration must now decide whether to reissue the notice on the same terms or change them to make running the facility more attractive.

The outcome carries even more weight because the tender had been designed precisely to attract investors. In July, the city council gave final approval to a zoning variation opening parts of the facility to uses other than racing: social and cultural initiatives, shows and events. The stated aim was to make running the racecourse more economically sustainable. Mayor Matteo Buoncristiani had described the process as "an epoch-making turning point". Even that was not enough.

Activities stopped on 31 December 2025. The facility opened in July 2009 and covers 34 hectares on the outskirts of the town, with a 1,400-metre track and a training centre with 330 stalls. It has a long crisis behind it. At the end of 2023, the city council revoked the concession held by Follonica Corse Cavalli for serious breaches of contract, triggering a legal dispute that is still ongoing. In July 2025, the Court of Grosseto ordered the liquidation of Sistema Cavallo, the company that organised the races.

A facility that weighs on the public purse

In the meantime, the public is footing the bill. According to MaremmaOggi, the municipality has also extended the security service through September, at a cost of almost €15,000 a month. The same newspaper reported concerns about problems with the electrical and plumbing systems, which may have deterred potential concessionaires. As early as autumn 2025, opposition groups on the city council had put the cost of management, maintenance and security at around €500,000 a year if the facility were left without a concessionaire.

News reports from recent years also tell of the price paid by the horses. On 24 August 2024, during the third race of the evening, Final Word Bi, a four-year-old trotter, fractured a shoulder and was put down. According to his driver's initial statements, reported by GiocoNews, the fall may have been caused by an abnormal dip in the track. The Ministry of Agriculture had opened an inquiry into the incident.

The market has already spoken

The failed tender confirms a structural crisis in the horse racing industry, which in Italy continues to be propped up with public money. When even private operators lose interest, persisting means shifting the cost onto the public.

IHP is calling on the Municipality of Follonica not to commit any further public resources to bringing racing back to the Pini. The zoning variation approved in July already recognises that those spaces can serve purposes other than racing. IHP asks the municipality to follow that choice through, with a plan to convert the entire area to uses that do not involve the exploitation of animals. Thirty-four hectares on the edge of town can become an opportunity for the community, rather than a cost that comes around again every month.