WHILE Arc Weekend as a whole was a bonanza for the four-legged British and Irish visitors, with nine winners and over €5.75 million in prize money, the experience was much less rewarding for the racing fans who made a long trip to the Bois de Boulougne, or indeed for home fans.

The ParisLongchamp refurbishment was a good idea in principal, replacing the vast but crumbling old grandstands designed with post-war six-figure attendances in mind, with a modern, eye-catching facility aimed at accommodating the much lesser crowds of the current era that struggle to reach the five-figure mark. Which is all very well until you come to Arc day itself, even when the crowd amounts to last Sunday’s figure of around 35,000, a marked drop from the last Longchamp Arc, three years ago.