France Galop, French racing’s ruling body, will cut admission prices for this year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and “promise that every English racing fan should have a proper drink” if Enable wins her third Arc at Longchamp in October, following widespread criticism of the facilities and customer service at the track in 2018 after a €140m (£123m) redevelopment.
Thousands of British and Irish racing fans make an annual pilgrimage to Paris on the first weekend in October for Europe’s richest and most prestigious race. Last year, though, many left bitterly disappointed and threatening never to return, amid reports of extended queues for toilets, betting windows, sandwich kiosks and bars, many of which seemed to run out of supplies by mid-afternoon.
The problems arose despite an attendance of just 35,000 on Arc day, 20,000 fewer than saw Golden Horn’s victory in 2015 before the old Longchamp closed for redevelopment.
Fans paid €20 (£17) to watch that race, and €30 (£26) when the Arc moved to Chantilly in 2016 and 2017. For the first Arc at the new Longchamp, however, the price was hiked to €75 (£68). That will drop to €65 (£57) this year, while admission to the Jardin de l’Arc enclosure – described as “the biggest pub in Paris” – will be €20 from €30. The overall customer service for racegoers should also improve dramatically.
“We had more than 30 race meetings before the Arc [last year] but the Arc is the Arc,” Olivier Delloye, the CEO of France Galop, said this weekend. “That was probably our biggest mistake. We probably forgot after two years of the Arc being staged at Chantilly, which attracted much fewer English people, that the English people coming for the races bet much more than the French people, that they tend to drink a little more than the French people as well. So we were short of the basic services.”
Fabrice Favetto Bon, France Galop’s marketing director, said that the track “will have 400 [betting] outlets compared to 343 last year. We’ll have a lot more kiosks like you have in England [and] operators with tablets will have huge signage to make them very seeable for everybody.
“We will implement more than 100 bars and pop-up restaurants and toilets will be increased by 30pc. We want to win back the trust of English fans, to tell them: give us a second chance.”