COVER N. 738 - FRANCE

Postmark: 190 Ans des Courses de Trot 1er Jour La Poste 50 Cherbourg-en-Cotentin 11.06.2026

Posted on the 11th June;  Received on the 25th June 2026

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Trot (or harness) races... here is another subject which I know absolutely nought about... But like it or not, I guess there is no escaping in admitting that the monochromatic painting on the stamp issued by La Poste to celebrate the 190 years of the sport in France is absolutely gorgeous (and yet... )

Un grand Merci, Eric, pour encore une très chouette enveloppe Premier Jour.

According to the release notes, Trot races began to take place in France, in 1836, at Cherbourg.

Over time the sport would captivate a dedicated fan base amongst horse breeders and riders, so much so that a special breed of horse was selective bred in Normandy, specifically with the sport in mind: the French Trotter, a compact and medium sized animal, usually chestnut or bay, with an height of 1,54 to 1,67 metres, featuring a sloped shoulder and a prominent sternum. 

Today, France is home to one of the most famous and more prize endowed races in  the world of Trot races: Le prix d'Ámérique, which takes place annually, since 1920, on the last Sunday of January, at the Vincennes Hippodrome, in Paris.

Celebrating the 190th anniversary of the Trot races in France, La Poste issued on 11JUN202, a souvenir sheet with a single 2,25  € stamp with a painting by Architect Wandrille Thieulin, whom I presume was also responsible for the equally monochromatic background illustration of an hippodrome.

I have to say I like both illustrations a lot, but I am no particular fan of the end result, the souvenir sheet, that is, both in composition terms (maybe if the stamp was placed a bit lower and closer to the lower left corner....)  which I find a bit confuse, and choice of colours for the legend,  which I find too contrasty... Still, I am no art critic,  and as I said the paintings do please me a lot.

The First Day Postmark hails from the city of Cherbourg, as previously mentioned, the original place of the first trot races in France (although Wikipedia claims the first races took place at the Champ de Mars, Paris, in 1806...) and is illustrated with  a plan view of a hippodrome track and the same legend "190 Ans des Courses de Trot" which is included in the block and stamp.