THE French group race season opened last Sunday with the running of the Prix Exbury but the main talking point during the weekend was the possibility of the track becoming a future housing development and a part of the plan for Greater Paris.

The French capital had a population of just 2.273 million on January 13th, 2013 and the government hopes to start work at Saint-Cloud on January 1st next year with a view to have the project part of a development of some 294 square miles which will turn Paris into a city with a population of 6.7 million by 2020.