Picture this. It is 7h30 on a Tuesday morning in Lyon. A man named Bernard is already sitting at his kitchen table, Equidia running in the background, Paris Turf open on one side and his coffee going cold on the other. He is not in a rush. He is doing what he does every single day: reading the programme, checking the partants, and deciding which races are worth his time and money.
Bernard knows exactly how Equidia works. He knows when to watch, what each segment tells him, and how to translate what the experts say into a real betting decision. If you are not Bernard yet, this guide will get you there. We cover the full daily structure, every major show, the PMU bets explained simply, and exactly where to find the channel no matter what box or screen you use.
Equidia du Jour is not just a television programme. It is a daily ritual for serious racing fans across France. And once you understand how it is structured, every single day becomes a lot more useful.
What Is Equidia and Why Does It Matter Every Single Day
Equidia is France’s dedicated horse racing television channel. It covers live races, expert analysis, trainer interviews, jockey reactions, pronostics, replays, and everything else a serious racing fan or PMU bettor needs in a single place. No other channel in France gives horse racing this level of daily attention.
Equidia du Jour refers to the daily broadcast schedule on Equidia, France’s leading horse racing channel. Available free of charge via all major French TV operators, it provides live race coverage, expert PMU pronostics, the Quinté+ analysis, partant sheets, trainer interviews, and full replays. It runs from early morning until late at night, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Born from PMU and France Galop: A Brief History
The channel traces its roots to 1996, when PMU partnered with AB Groupe to create France Courses, the country’s first dedicated horse racing channel. It was only available on the AB Sat satellite bouquet and had a small audience. In 1999, PMU recovered the rights and relaunched the channel under a new name: Equidia. Ownership today sits with France Galop and the SECF (Société d’encouragement à l’élevage du cheval français), alongside PMU. The channel went full HD in 2015 and has continued to expand its digital presence ever since.
What Makes It Different from a Regular Sports Channel
Most sports channels give horse racing a segment. Equidia gives it everything. There are no football results interrupting the card, no cycling highlights cutting across the Quinté analysis. Every minute of every broadcast is built around the racing fan. That focus is exactly why 90% of PMU betting shops across France display Equidia on their screens throughout the day.
How to Find Equidia on Your TV, Box, or Screen Today
Equidia is completely free. You do not need a premium subscription to watch races, pronostics, or replays. Here is where to find it, depending on how you watch television in France.
Watching Equidia Online for Free
Go to equidia.fr/direct. The entire live stream is free with a simple account registration. You can watch the main broadcast, follow individual racing meetings through Equidia Racing channels, and access every replay without paying a single euro. The site also runs on Molotv, so if you already use that platform, you can add Equidia there too.
The Equidia App on Mobile
The Equidia app launched in 2018 and is completely free on both iOS and Android. It carries the full live stream, all race replays, expert podcasts, pronostics pages with partant sheets, and the Equidia Racing multi-screen feature that lets you watch up to four different meetings at the same time. If you are serious about following races on the go, the app is genuinely excellent.
Understanding the Equidia Du Jour Programme Structure
The daily broadcast follows a clear three-block structure. Once you understand what each block is for, you will know exactly when to sit down and what to take from it.
Daily Broadcast Timeline
La Matinale
Morning news, first race cards, pronostics, terrain reports, and the day’s agenda. This is where you learn what matters before the first race goes off.
Le Grand Direct
The flagship block. Live races from all active hippodromes, real-time cotes, Ticket Gagnant, expert deep dives, jockey and trainer interviews between races.
Evening Block
Results summaries, race replays, international evening meetings (Maronas, Veliefendi, Sha Tin), documentaries, and post-race analysis for the following day.
Morning Block (7h to 12h): La Matinale
La Matinale runs from 7h00 to 12h00 and is presented by a rotating team that includes familiar faces like Fabien Cailler, Alexis Lévy, and Laurent Broomhead. The format is a 60-minute live information programme that cycles through the day’s key races, reports from the stables, terrain conditions at each hippodrome, and the morning cotes from PMU.
The segments are designed for bettors who want to build their tickets before noon. You get the Grand Voyageur (travel reports from distant hippodromes), the Carnet des Pistes (track condition updates), the Ticket du Patron (the expert’s top pick of the day), and La Question Qui Pique (a pointed analysis of the race that everyone is asking about). Think of it as the morning briefing before a working day of racing.
Midday and Afternoon: Le Grand Direct in Full Swing
From 12h00 onward, the tone shifts. The morning’s light, conversational style gives way to focused live coverage. Races go off every 30 to 45 minutes across multiple meetings. The Grand Direct switches fluidly between hippodromes, giving you paddock views, live commentary, and immediate post-race analysis before cutting to the next event. This is where serious bettors spend most of their afternoon.
Evening Block: International Races and Replay Time
Once the French meetings wrap up, Equidia shifts to international coverage. Meetings from Maronas (Uruguay), Sha Tin (Hong Kong), Veliefendi (Turkey), Palermo (Italy), and Kalgoorlie (Australia) fill the evening schedule. For bettors who enjoy international markets, this is pure content. The evening also carries replays of the day’s biggest French races and documentary programmes on the equestrian world.
Le Grand Direct: The Flagship Show You Should Never Miss
Le Grand Direct is the heart of Equidia du Jour. Every serious turfiste in France knows what it is, when it runs, and which parts of it matter most. If you are new to Equidia, this is the first show you should study.
Ticket Gagnant: The 15-Minute Show That Builds Your Bet
Ticket Gagnant is a short daily show that airs before the Quinté+ race. The format is simple and effective. Two Equidia presenters each put forward their own betting paper for the race. A guest bettor from the public then chooses between the two papers. Equidia pays for whichever ticket the guest selects.
For viewers, this show is genuinely useful. You watch two experts argue their cases in real time. You hear why one prefers a horse over another. You see which arguments hold up under challenge. It is better racing education than most dedicated betting guides, and it runs in just 15 minutes.
The Quinté+ and PMU Bets Explained for Equidia Viewers
Equidia’s entire daily structure is built around helping you understand and participate in PMU betting. The three main bets you will hear about constantly are the Quinté+, the Pick 5, and the Super 4. Here is what each one actually means.
Quinté+: The One Race That Defines the Day
The Quinté+ is the centrepiece PMU bet. Every day, one race is designated as the Quinté+ race. Your job is to pick the five horses that will finish in the top five, in the correct order, from a field of at least 15 runners. Get all five in order and you win the jackpot. Get them in any order and you win a reduced payout. Get four correct and there is still a return.
On Equidia, the Quinté+ race gets more dedicated coverage than any other race of the day. La Matinale begins analysing it from 7h00. Ticket Gagnant is built around it. The Grand Direct returns to it repeatedly throughout the morning and early afternoon. By the time the horses enter the paddock, you will have heard from three or four different experts about which horses they favour and why.
Pick 5, Super 4, and Quinté+: Side-by-Side Comparison
The Feu Vert, Feu Orange, Feu Rouge System
Equidia’s experts use a traffic light rating system when giving their Quinté+ analysis. It sounds simple because it is, and that is what makes it useful.
Feu Vert (Green Light)
The expert’s top selection. This horse is their confident pick for the race. Strong form, good conditions, trusted trainer. Worth including at the top of your ticket.
Feu Orange (Orange Light)
A horse with genuine ability but a clear question mark, a first run at the distance, an uncertain terrain preference, or coming back from injury. Use with caution.
Feu Rouge (Red Light)
The horse they advise leaving out of your ticket. Could be poor recent form, wrong conditions, or simply too many better alternatives in the field.
How to Read the Daily Partants and Cotes on Equidia
When a race card comes up on screen, you will see a list of horses with several columns of information. If you have never read a French race card before, it looks daunting. It is not. Here is exactly what each column means.
Find the race number and hippodrome
Each race is labeled R1C3, R2C5, and so on. R = Réunion (meeting), C = Course (race number within that meeting). R1C4 means meeting 1, race 4.
Check the distance and terrain
Distance is in metres. Terrain describes ground conditions: Bon (good), Bon souple (good to soft), Souple (soft), Lourd (heavy). Some horses only perform on certain ground types.
Read the cotes (odds)
Cotes in PMU are expressed as ratios. A cote of 3.5 means you win 3.50 euros for every 1 euro staked (profit only). Morning cotes are estimates. Final cotes are set at closing based on the total money staked on each horse by all bettors in the pool.
Note the trainer and jockey
Equidia experts always mention when a trainer’s yard is in strong form. A top jockey booking for a horse that did not previously run with that jockey is a signal worth noting. These details appear on the partant sheet and in La Matinale commentary.
Key Turf Vocabulary You Will Hear Every Day on Equidia
The Biggest Races You Will See on Equidia Du Jour Throughout the Year
Every day has a Quinté+ race and a full card of supporting races. But certain days during the year are genuinely unmissable. These are the moments when Equidia’s production goes into full Grand Prix mode, with special outside broadcast units, longer pre-race shows, and expert guests from across the industry.
Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe
ParisLongchamp · First Sunday in October
The most prestigious flat race in Europe and Equidia’s biggest day of the year on the galop calendar. Horses from Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Japan come to Paris to face the French. Equidia runs full-day coverage from paddock arrival to post-race ceremonies.
Prix d’Amérique
Paris-Vincennes · Late January
The world championship of harness racing. Held at Vincennes in the depth of winter, it draws the best trotters from France, Scandinavia, and Italy. For trot fans, there is no bigger race on the planet, and Equidia treats it accordingly.
Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris
Auteuil · Last Sunday in May
France’s most demanding jump race, run over fences at Auteuil in Paris. The course features unique French-style obstacles that do not exist anywhere else in the world. Equidia’s coverage includes the full week of build-up races known as the Grande Semaine d’Auteuil.
Grand Prix de Paris
ParisLongchamp · July
A Group 1 race for three-year-olds over 2,400 metres at Longchamp. Often a key trial for the Arc de Triomphe later in the season. Equidia uses this race as part of its longer narrative about France’s Classic generation each year.
Equidia Replay: What to Do When You Miss a Race
Life does not always cooperate with race schedules. The replay feature on Equidia is one of the most genuinely useful things about the platform, and most casual viewers do not use it as much as they should.
Every race broadcast on Equidia is available for replay on equidia.fr/toutes-les-courses and inside the mobile app. The archive goes back years. You can search by hippodrome, by race name, by date, or by the horse’s name. So if you want to review how a horse ran its last three races before deciding whether to include it in your Quinté+ ticket, you have access to the footage directly.
The replay section also carries full replays of each day’s Quinté+ race. After a race, Equidia’s experts return on screen with a post-race analysis. This segment, often overlooked, is where you learn the most. They explain what went right for the winner, what went wrong for the fancied horses that did not perform, and what it all means for upcoming races. Watching five minutes of post-race analysis after each Quinté+ will improve your handicapping faster than any tipsheet.
FAQs About Equidia Du Jour
Is Equidia free to watch?
Yes. Equidia is completely free. It is included without extra charge in the standard TV package of every major French internet and cable operator: Free, Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom, and Canal+. The website equidia.fr also offers a free live stream with a free account. The mobile app is free on iOS and Android. There is no premium paywall for race coverage.
What time does the Quinté+ race go off each day?
The Quinté+ race time varies by hippodrome and season, but typically falls between 13h30 and 16h30 on most days. The exact time is announced during La Matinale each morning and displayed prominently on the equidia.fr race card for the day. Saturday Quinté+ races at venues like Enghien often go off around 15h15.
What is the difference between Equidia and PMU?
They serve different functions. PMU (Pari Mutuel Urbain) is the French state betting operator. It is where you place your bets and collect your winnings. Equidia is a television and media channel. It provides the information, live coverage, and expert analysis that helps you decide how to bet. They are closely linked because PMU is one of Equidia’s founding shareholders, but they are separate services. You watch Equidia to learn. You bet through PMU to play.
Can I watch Equidia outside France?
The Equidia live stream on equidia.fr is geo-restricted to France in most cases. Viewers outside France can access some content through the Equidia Racing channels on the app, though full live race coverage is typically limited to French territories. If you are a French resident travelling abroad, a VPN set to a French server will generally restore access to the full stream.
How many races does Equidia broadcast per year?
Equidia broadcasts approximately 5,000 races per year across all disciplines, including trot (attelé and monté), galop (flat and jumps), and international meetings. The channel runs 2,800 hours of live coverage annually, making it one of the most active live sports channels in France by hours of original broadcast.
What is Equidia Racing?
Equidia Racing is a multi-stream feature available on the Equidia app and website. While the main broadcast covers one meeting at a time, Equidia Racing lets you open up to four separate race feeds simultaneously, each following a different hippodrome. This is particularly useful on days when five or six meetings are running in parallel and you have bets across several of them.
