Arc de Triomphe

[Tavasco]

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber\'s filly So Mi Dar was beaten today at Chantilly. Thanks to a troubled and questionable ride by F. Dettori (imo). Yet she is rumored to be heading to the BC Filly & Mare Turf. I hope so.

The Arc is upcoming and I\'m considering going with the trend for another 3 y/o filly winner - Left Hand. This year\'s Japanese challenger Makahiki is attractive with now Japanese based jockey Lemaire who rode him in prep and likes him.

Postponed to beat.

Our man about, TempletonPeck, is rumored to be onsite.

[Tavasco]

He runs 1-2-3. All quiet in mudsville.

[TempletonPeck]

I was in fact onsite, and report back as follows: Chantilly is a great place and people who are Francophiles or lovers of horse-racing should go. Chantilly is to French racing as Del Mar or Saratoga is to our racing, IMO at least. (which also meant that it was overwhelmed by the reported 41k in attendance, compared with Longchamp last year which swallowed up 60 or 80k without forcing anyone to wait in line for more than 3-4 minutes for beer/wine/betting)

The good: it was sunny and 63, and there was some pretty great flesh on display, horse and human :-O

The bad: I got in line to bet at 25 MTP for the Arc, and only put in half my bets out of pity for the guy behind me, who was going to get shut out altogether (hidden good: ultimately I saved money by doing this)

The ugly: I got to the train station at 7:22pm, last train for paris at 7:26. I realized there was no way I could get a ticket and make the train (lineup as bad as the Arc betting line), so I gambled on no conductor, planning to go with some combination of \"JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS!\" and a promise to buy a ticket on the other end if it came to that... It didn\'t, so I got a free trip home (taxi quoted me 120 euro, so thanks France national rail!)