TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/998879
T here's little doubt that one of the greatest joys of having a horse in training is actually witnessing that training process. The chance to track the progress perhaps of a homebred who has been the source of so much hope ever since the liaison between his two parents was planned, or a yearling studiously selected at the sales. Racing is the aim, of course. But away from the jangling nerves of the racecourse, watching horses at exercise— that metamorphosis from gangly youth to imposing athlete—is a vital element of the sporting dream, their carefree fleet-footedness imprinted deep in the memory's reserve to be replayed at leisure. And where better to indulge such day- dreams than engulfed in a forest which relents here and there to reveal natural sand tracks speckled by sun and shade, with a wide expanse of turf gallops at its heart? Welcome to Chantilly. The magic of France's largest training centre is that despite the bustle of some 2,500 racehorses and the coming and goings of the staff involved in the yards of a little over 100 trainers, it appears never to lose its inner calm—a hush created perhaps by the fact that it is encircled by that forest stretching across some 1,500 hectares. This is not the back of beyond, however. The training grounds and its racecourse in the shadow of the Château de Chantilly are within easy reach of Paris and its main Charles de Gaulle airport, which is less than half an hour away. This is the permanent