IN most weeks, the horseracing highlight that kicks off this column pretty much picks itself, but that is not so this time, and it is not down to a surfeit of choice!

Remarkably little has gone on in Ireland and Britain in the immediate post-Fairyhouse period. There was just one turf flat meeting in April (Navan on the 7th) before the start of the Grand National meeting on Thursday; that was in large part down to unseasonally bad weather, but the flat meetings which were lost were hardly of great consequence anyway. Jumps racing’s lull was more to be expected.

Perhaps more attention needs to be given to the fixture list at this time of the year and especially when Easter is as early as it was on this occasion.

LONGCHAMP

As a result, I will turn in the first place instead to France, where Longchamp reopened as ParisLongchamp last Sunday after more than two years of being refurbished.

My understanding is that the racing surface has not been altered, though there is now a false rail entering the straight (like at Dundalk, but set out six metres for this fixture) in an attempt to avoid so much trouble in running. Previous standard times may well be valid, though the new configuration is likely to slow all times fractionally.

Another thing that has changed at France’s premier racecourse is that we are getting well-run races, though it remains to be seen how permanent that will be; all bar the opener on Sunday’s eight-race card had a finishing speed of 100% or less and the resulting timefigures make plenty of sense.

Of most interest to Irish and British racing fans was the Group 3 Prix La Force, which went to the Martyn Meade-trained Chilean, last seen finishing sixth to the 2000 Guineas favourite Saxon Warrior in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster.

This win certainly did the form of that race no harm, though the time of Sunday’s contest was decent rather than better – I have a timefigure of 107 on Chilean – and it ended up slower than the Group 3 Prix Vanteaux for fillies, in which Barkaa ran a smart 112 winning timefigure. Best of all on time was the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt, which was run at a strong pace (finishing speed 97.9% of overall race speed) and which was won by the Ralph Beckett-trained Air Pilot with a 119 time performance.

The nine-year-old gelding lost his way a bit after beating Success Days and US Army Ranger in the Alleged Stakes at Naas first time up in 2017 but has now won two out of two this year, with soft ground and distances of around a mile and quarter seemingly just about ideal for him.

Deauville staged a couple of classic trials the day after, with Dice Roll in the Prix Djebel easily more impressive on the clock than Coeur De Beaute in the Prix Imprudence. The former gets a timefigure of 119, which is just a fraction behind the standard usually required to win the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (French equivalent of the 2000 Guineas) in a few weeks’ time.