ENGLISH TEXTS
the 1830s, has been redone, as have the sprinklers, to limit water waste. An € 800,000 investment. Consumption was 87,000 m ³ in 2020; it fell to 29,000 m ³ four years later. Marin Le Cour Grandmaison is operations manager for the entire Chantilly site, including the training center.“ We’ re ultra weather-dependent and have several irrigation scenarios, with probes that measure pressure in the pipes. Software calculates where we need to water to have the right pressure. The information is sent to a tablet so an operator can monitor on the ground that everything is running smoothly. We water at night, of course, to avoid evapotranspiration.” Before the work, the track was watered in 300- to 500-meter sections, indiscriminately. Yet it’ s a natural, sandy surface that isn’ t flat and dries quickly. Each large sprinkler is now controlled individually, and there’ s one every fifteen to thirty meters. This setup is complemented by smaller sprinklers on each side of the track, every four meters. The track is thirty meters wide, with a surface area of fifteen hectares( the racecourse totals sixty-five).“ The middle is often cooler than the edges. In those cases we only use the small sprinklers, which have a reach of four meters on either side of the track,” notes Marin Le Cour Grandmaison.“ We also work in line with the calendar and the race program, watering only the courses that will be used— the Jockey Club track in spring, the round course in autumn … We simply maintain the tracks that aren’ t in use.”
Racecourses make a cultural shift At Chantilly, France Galop strives to keep a lush, perky parade ring, as it’ s the racecourse’ s television showcase. But other public and landscaped areas are no longer watered.“ It’ s become accepted practice,” says Marin Le Cour Grandmaison.“ We recognize that to some tastes it’ s less pretty than before.” Not less pretty, just different, says Rose-Marie Vigorito-Somson who, after fourteen years running the Paris-Vincennes and Enghien-Soisy racecourses, has since 2022 headed the Caen and Cabourg trotting tracks. Cabourg stages the hugely popular Estivales, with semi-evening racing every Tuesday and Friday all summer.“ At this racecourse we no longer water public areas. Before, everything was green and magnificent; today there are stems everywhere and it’ s yellow. But instead of saying it’ s ugly, we need to change our outlook! It’ s not ugly, nature is reclaiming its rights, and now we’ re proud of it. We no longer trim hedges during the nesting period, so of course they don’ t look the same as before. Since we stopped mowing and now have a meadow, we’ ve seen wild orchids and hares return. That’ s what preserving means!” Racecourses’ envi- ronmental awareness goes far beyond the water issue. The vast majority of them( around 210 out of 230) are EquuRES-certified, which bans the use of phytosanitary products. The missions of the maintenance teams have been transformed as a result. At Caen and Cabourg, about ten staff have adapted.“ Some tasks take longer, like weeding around the rails since we no longer use chemicals, so it has to be done by hand or with a brush-cutter. On the other hand, we mow less often. The work is distributed differently.” Cabourg has also covered its roof with solar panels.“ We produce enough energy to power two hundred and twelve homes, can you imagine? There are so many ways to protect our planet!” exclaims Rose-Marie Somson.
“ The weather is changing. In the past we had regular rainy spells. We have the same annual rainfall totals but with more thunderstorms. It’ s water we can’ t capitalize on; it runs off and wrecks everything.”
- Marin Le Cour Grandmaison, operations manager for the Chantilly site
“ We realized that in very dry years the drinking-water pumps around Chantilly were almost out of water: we were a hair’ s breadth from having no water at the tap.”
- Clara Morvan, technical director of the Nonette Water Development and Mgmt Plan
# 12 158