ENGLISH TEXTS
1908. Two meetings are held, each featuring seven races, six harness and one mounted, and a leg of the Trophée des Plages since 2008. The racecourse has also carried the Race and Care label since 2024.
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UNUSUAL
� PAGE 60
By Céline Gualde
UNUSUAL STORIES FROM THE RACETRACKS
With Love from the Racetrack Philippe Lucas is a racing enthusiast, more specifically, a racetrack enthusiast. And for good reason: this retiree worked for over thirty years as an electrician at Longchamp, a role that also took him to Chantilly and Deauville. Fascinated by the architectural beauty of racetracks, Philippe began collecting postcards that feature them. He now owns more than 1,200. These small rectangles, often adorned with elegant handwriting on the back, offer a quirky and sometimes moving way to tell the story of horse racing— and more broadly, of French society. Philippe enjoys studying the people frozen in the blackand-white photos, watch- ing how women’ s clothing evolved from corseted and hatted figures to more liberated silhouettes over time... The postcards also preserve the memory of racetracks that have vanished, like Mortagne-au-Perche in the Orne, where only the grandstands remain, or Pontl’ Évêque in Calvados, which closed in the 1920s. Philippe occasionally exhibits parts of his collection at racetracks and dreams of publishing a book focused on the early 1900s. The project is currently underway with Lavauzelle publishing.
All Roads Lead to the Racetrack What do Thomas Miscannon, a retired U. S. Navy serviceman, and Mike Parcej, an IT equipment company employee from Birmingham, have in common? A shared passion for racetracks. Thomas travels the world aboard military cargo planes, access granted by his Navy veteran status. Mike, who has a form of autism that prevents him from driving, makes his way from one racetrack to another using public transportation. Thomas Miscannon has visited 424 racetracks across the globe, and counting! A former Thoroughbred owner, he enjoys arriving early on race days to walk the tracks and explore the facilities. His passion has taken him to 17 countries. Many racetracks, once aware of his unique pilgrimage, welcome him as a VIP. In mid-June, for example, Roscommon in Ireland rolled out the red carpet for this visitor from Florida. Mike remembers exactly when his love for racing began: September 13, 1980. He was a teenager, and his autism— which gives him a remarkable memory for dates, had not yet been diagnosed. Mike had trouble focusing and staying interested in anything for long, until he came across a televised race. From that moment on, he was hooked- not by gambling, as he’ s not a bettor, but by the horses themselves. A passionate fan of jumps racing, Mike knows every racetrack in England and most of those in Ireland. He even attended the Grand Steeplechase weekend at Auteuil, sharing his excitement with his nearly 10,000 social media followers! Who knows, maybe Thomas and Mike will one day cross paths at a racetrack!
Racetrack Noir Racetracks have often inspired crime writers. The most famous of them is probably former British jockey Dick Francis, who won more than 350 races and had the honor of riding for the Queen of England for several seasons. Forced to retire after a fall, Francis reinvented himself as a best-selling crime novelist. He wrote nearly one book a year until his death in 2010, and all his novels are set in the world of horse racing. Among the many French authors inspired by the racing scene is Frédéric H. Fajardie, who excelled at writing noir
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