From Napoleon's mistress to a road junction - there's variety aplenty

1 The prefix Prix in French race names translates fairly directly as ‘prize’. The two French Guineas are known as the Poules d’Essai des Poulains and Pouliches: literally, the "trial grouping of colts and fillies". Criterium are important regional or national races for two-year-olds and derive their name from the tradition of running sporting contests in rounds or heats (cycling road races which take in several laps of a circuit also share the name).

2 The Grand Criterium at Longchamp – known since 2003 as the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere – dates from 1853 and remains open to both colts and fillies, whereas the Criterium des Pouliches for fillies only –now the Prix Marcel Boussac – was only introduced in 1969. As well as the two Group 1 Criteriums run at Saint-Cloud in November, there are other less feted examples at Lyon Parilly, Marseille Borely, Toulouse and Bordeaux, where the Grand Criterium was won by future Prix du Jockey Club hero Almanzor last October.

3 Many of Longchamp’s most important race names are taken from landmarks on or near the racecourse, including the Prix de l’Abbaye and the Prix du Moulin (the windmill). The Prix du Cadran is named after the clock face on the Ecole Militaire, which faces the Champs de Mars, the site of the first racecourse in Paris.