from the laid-back seaside gathering at
Deauville's August meeting, this is real-
ly the one time of the year in the French
racing calendar that one finds a genuinely
bustling and cosmopolitan crowd. Natural-
ly, then, for many this is a once-a-year ex-
perience.
So if you're returning to Longchamp
for the first time in three years after a
Chantilly hiatus, prepare to be surprised.
It's not only the name that's changed.
The hybrid ParisLongchamp moniker has
been adopted in a bid to draw a greater
local crowd from the city throughout the
season, and with DJs, garden parties, and
swanky restaurants to complement the
routinely good racing at the track, it
appears to be working.
Many racing folk are at heart tradition-
alists, dates in our diaries fixed year on
year, knowing exactly which old friends
we can expect to meet at a partic-
ular spot at our favourite tracks.
I'll admit I travelled to Paris for
the inauguration of the new-look
course back in April with some
trepidation. Longchamp, after
all, was the place that ignit-
ed my enduring passion for
French racing on the day I
watched Sagamix win the
Arc back in 1998. Twenty
years later, how would I feel
about no longer being able
