THE COMMISSIONS FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE RACECOURSES QUALITY WERE APPOINTED

Late yesterday afternoon on the Masaf website was published the Decree for the appointment of the Commissions for the evaluation of the quality of the facilities, structures and services dedicated to racing at racecourses ex art. 3 of the Ministerial Decree no. 644641 of 06/12/2024, for the classification of racecourses in activity - Decree D. G. prot. no. 91031 of 26/02/2025 (CLICK HERE to read it) through which two Commissions are set up to assess the quality of the facilities, structures and services dedicated to racing at racecourses. These Commissions will include among their members, for each Commission, a President belonging to the Administration, a veterinarian and three race officials enrolled in the register referred to in Ministerial Decree 11930 of 2015, as well as additional substitute members in the event of the unavailability of the holders;

Each commission will be responsible for carrying out the quality assessment activity at the racecourses according to a standardised ‘multi-modal’ assessment procedure, to be defined in advance and approved by decree signed by the Director pro tempore of the DIPP Office 4.
In order to proceed with the assessment of the quality of the facilities, structures and services dedicated to racing at the racecourses pursuant to art. 3 of Ministerial Decree no. 644641 of 06/12/2024, each commission shall make at least one visit to each racecourse.

The Commission visits at the racecourses may be attended, as observers, by representatives of the Administrations owning the publicly-owned facilities as well as by representatives of the Category Associations.
The Quality Assessment Commissions (a parameter that will be included in 2026 among those defining the classification of racecourses) shall complete their activity by 20 October 2025 by forwarding the assessments to the Director General of the Directorate General for Horse Racing, for subsequent evaluations of competence for the classification of racecourses in operation.

The classification of racecourses, which is carried out according to objective criteria based on the AHP method, is one of the cornerstones of the reform process of the horse racing sector as it aims to define procedures to incentivise the realisation of investments for the modernisation of facilities as well as the provision of quality services to operators and the public. According to reports, classification could - in turn - be one of the criteria on which the new method of distributing subsidies to racing clubs will be based.

These are the members of the commissions:
Commission No. 1
Members 
Paola Pucciatti, MASAF official DIPP 4 office, acting as President;
Luca Aleandri, President of the Jury for trotting races; 
Renato Bircolotti, gallop racing official; 
Giuseppe Cascio, veterinarian; 
Gabriele Graziano, trotting race official;

Alternate members in case of unavailability of the full members 
Rita Marzo, MASAF official DIPP 4 office, acting as substitute President in case of unavailability of the full President; 
Benedetto La Gioia, trotting and gallop racing official.

Commission no. 2
Full members 
Paola Mariani, MASAF official DIPP 4 office, acting as President;

Andrea Mariani, trotting official; 
Paolo Rizzi, veterinary officer; 
Mario Ena Seghetti, gallop racing official; 
Michele Volpati, trotting race official;

Alternate members in case of unavailability of the full members 
Rita Rossi, MASAF official DIPP 4 office, acting as substitute President in case of unavailability of the full President; 
Pierluigi Ricci, trotting and gallop racing official.