lawn, most of whom seem to have
brought their dogs. I had never seen
dogs at a racetrack, even in France,
but here it must be a tradition be-
cause there are hundreds of them,
literally. They're all well-behaved,
big and small, watching the horses
take a turn in the paddock without
so much as a bark. There are regu-
lar people, and elegant people; ice
cream stands and champagne, all
combined so harmoniously togeth-
er that it's as if everyone took some
sort of happy drug. It occurs to me
that it's been a long time since I've
seen so many people having such a
good time at the races.
Hoppegarten crossed my radar for
the first time when the New York
Racing Association entered into a
three-year partnership with the Ger-
man track in March of 2017, pledging
