TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/998879
grounds around Chantilly which stretch to some 120 hectares of turf and 145 kilometres of sand tracks. The forest itself is cleaved by the majestic four-kilometres straight gallop known as the Piste des Lions, which starts close to the chateau and ends in Lamorlaye. It is perhaps Les Aigles, however, for which Chantilly is most famous—the lush core of the forest which opens up to reveal the revered turf gallops flanked by some of the town's oldest stableyards. There's no red carpet here, instead green, which has been more than good enough across the decades for many eagles to have soared; the likes of Pharis, Sea-Bird, Montjeu, and Treve. The sprung turf of Les Aigles has also been the launch pad for the globetrotting Gallic flagbearers Goldikova, Americain, Dunaden, Doctor Dino, Jim And Tonic, and now Vazirabad. "Les Aigles was built in 1890 and nothing has changed since then," says Matthieu Vincent, who has been director of Chantilly's training centre and racecourse for the past 20 years and now also looks after Maisons-Laffitte and Deauville. "They built the perfect training centre; they knew what they were doing." Nicolas Clement, one of Chantilly's longest-serving trainers whose father trained in the town before him, is THEY BUILT THE PERFECT TRAINING CENTRE; THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING.