Moroccan racing building a bright future in foothills of the Atlas mountains

Cheltenham may have Cleeve Hill, at 1,083ft the highest point in the Cotswolds, but the city of Marrakech has the High Atlas as a backdrop, with the 13,671ft snowy peak of Toubkal shimmering above the cloudline as if floating over the earth.

It also has a new racecourse, a symbol not only of Morocco's long tradition with the equine world but emblematic of a dynamism that is bringing sweeping change to its racing structure.

To be fair to Cheltenham, Cleeve Hill does start somewhere near the third fence from home, whereas the racecourse at Marrakech looks out over distant foothills of the Middle Atlas that are nowhere near as breathtaking as their bigger brothers that dominate the skyline on the other side of this growing city of 900,000 residents.